Methods and systems for resource allocation

ABSTRACT

Various methods and systems are provided for allocating time-frequency resources for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) communications between base stations and mobile stations. Different forms of resource allocation messages including combinations of bitmaps and bitfields provide additional information about the resources and/or how they are assigned. In some implementations the resource allocation messages enable reduced overhead, which may ultimately improve transmission rates and/or the quality of transmissions.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/985,419 filed on Nov. 5, 2007, U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 60/986,709 filed on Nov. 9, 2007, U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/033,619 filed on Mar. 4, 2008,U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/046,625 filed on Apr. 21,2008, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/078,525 filed on Jul.7, 2008, all of which are both hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to wireless communication systems in general, andto assigning transmission resources, in particular.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Various wireless access technologies have been proposed or implementedto enable mobile stations to perform communications with other mobilestations or with wired terminals coupled to wired networks. Examples ofwireless access technologies include GSM (Global System for Mobilecommunications) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)technologies, defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project(3GPP); and CDMA 2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000) technologies,defined by 3GPP2.

As part of the continuing evolution of wireless access technologies toimprove spectral efficiency, to improve services, to lower costs, and soforth, new standards have been proposed. One such new standard is theLong Term Evolution (LTE) standard from 3GPP, which seeks to enhance theUMTS wireless network. The CDMA 2000 wireless access technology from3GPP2 is also evolving. The evolution of CDMA 2000 is referred to as theUltra Mobile Broadband (UMB) access technology, which supportssignificantly higher rates and reduced latencies.

Another type of wireless access technology is the WiMax (WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access) technology. WiMax is based on theIEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.16Standard. The WiMax wireless access technology is designed to providewireless broadband access.

The existing control channel design used for the various wireless accesstechnologies discussed above are relatively inefficient. The controlchannel, which contains control information sent from a base station tomobile stations to enable the mobile stations to properly receivedownlink data and to transmit uplink data, typically includes arelatively large amount of information. In some cases, such controlchannels with relatively large amounts of information are broadcast tomultiple mobile stations in a cell or cell sector. The overheadassociated with such broadcasts of control channels makes using suchtechniques inefficient, since substantial amounts of available power andbandwidth may be consumed by the broadcast of such control channels.Note that the power of the broadcast control channel has to be highenough to reach the mobile station with the weakest wireless connectionin the cell or cell sector.

The control channel design in IEEE 802.16e, as a particular example isinefficient in both power and bandwidth. Since the control channel isalways broadcast to all users using full power with a frequency reusefactor of N=3, it consumes a significant portion of the available powerand bandwidth. Another disadvantage of the current control channeldesign is that it allows for many different signalling options, whichsignificantly increases the control channel overhead.

Although the control channel design in UMB and LTE is more efficient,both can be further optimized in order to reduce power and bandwidthoverhead.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodcomprising: in a time-frequency transmission resource comprising aplurality of transmission symbols, each on a plurality of sub-carriers:creating one or more subzones of the time-frequency transmissionresource wherein each subzone comprises at least one block of channelunits comprising at least one sub-carrier used for all transmissionsymbols in the subzone; scheduling at least one user in at least one ofthe one or more subzones; controlling distribution of transmission powerover the one or more subzones.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, when more than onesubzone is created: grouping two or more subzones together to form atleast one subzone group; controlling distribution of transmission powerfor each subzone group over the two or more subzones in each respectivesubzone group.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, for a plurality oftime-frequency transmission resources: scrambling the arrangement ofsubzones in at least one of the subzone groups in at least two of theplurality of time-frequency transmission resources.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, for a plurality ofsectors in a telecommunication cell: scrambling the arrangement ofsubzones in at least one of the subzone groups in at least two of theplurality sectors.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, when physicalsub-carriers are scrambled according to a given permutation mapping toproduce logical subcarriers in the time-frequency transmission resource:utilizing a different permutation mapping in at least two of the one ormore subzones.

In some embodiments, scheduling at least one user in at least one of theone or more subzones comprises: scheduling a user in the subzone withthe largest available time-frequency resource.

In some embodiments, for a plurality of time-frequency transmissionresources, scheduling at least one user in at least one of the one ormore subzones comprises: assigning a portion of at least one subzone inone or more of the plurality of time-frequency transmission resources toa user on a persistent basis.

In some embodiments, assigning a portion of at least one subzone in oneor more of the plurality of time-frequency transmission resources to auser on a persistent basis comprises: assigning the portion of the atleast one subzone for a first HARQ transmission.

In some embodiments, for synchronous HARQ, assigning the portion of theat least one subzone for a first HARQ transmission comprises: assigningthe portion on a reoccurring basis that is different than an interlaceon which HARQ retransmissions occur.

In some embodiments, assigning the portion on a reoccurring basis thatis different than an interlace on which HARQ retransmissions occurcomprises: assigning the portion on every Mth transmission resource ofthe plurality of transmission resources when the interlace is every Nthtransmission resource of the plurality of transmission resources.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, when the portion ofat least one subzone that is assigned on a persistent basis is not used:releasing the portion that is assigned on a persistent basis for atleast a temporary duration of time; reassigning it to a different userfor a temporary duration.

In some embodiments, releasing the portion that is assigned on apersistent basis for at least a temporary duration of time comprisesreleasing the portion based on one or more of: a timeout since a lastcommunication has occurred; an occurrence of N, N>=1, packettransmission or reception failures; or an explicit deassignment ofresources.

In some embodiments, releasing the portion that is assigned on apersistent basis for at least a temporary duration of time is a resultof a message received along with the original message assigning theportion of at least one subzone on a persistent basis.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises assigning HARQretransmission using at least one of unicast or group signaling.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodcomprising: in a time-frequency transmission resource comprising atleast one subzone, each subzone comprising at least one partition, eachpartition having at least one resource block, each resource block havinga plurality of transmission symbols on a plurality of sub-carriers,wherein one or more resource blocks are allocated to each of at leastone user in a respective partition; for each partition, signalling agroup of users with a group bitmap, wherein the group bitmap includes atleast one bitfield that provides additional information about the one ormore resource blocks allocated to the at least one user of therespective partition.

In some embodiments, signalling a group of users with a group bitmap,wherein the group bitmap includes at least one bitfield comprises:signaling a group bitmap with a permutation index bitfield; andsignaling a group bitmap with a user pairing or user sets combinationindex bitfield.

In some embodiments, signalling the group bitmap with a permutationindex bitfield comprises: assigning different numbers of resource blocksto respective users of the group of users.

In some embodiments, signalling the group bitmap with a permutationindex bitfield comprises: signaling a bitfield that has a logicalmapping to a particular number of resource blocks per user for arespective partition.

In some embodiments, signalling a group bitmap with a user pairing oruser sets combination index bitfield comprises: assigning users havingresource block assignments into sets of two or more.

In some embodiments, signalling a group bitmap with a user pairing oruser sets combination index bitfield comprises: signaling a bitfieldthat has a logical mapping to one or more sets of two or more users.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: decoding the groupbitmap by a user is at least in part performed as a function of havingknowledge of the size of the group bitmap.

In some embodiments, the size of the group bitmap is: known by the user;determinable by a user; determinable to a set of possibilities by theuser.

In some embodiments, signalling a group of users with a group bitmapthat includes at least one bitfield comprises: signalling a group ofusers with a group bitmap that comprises: a first portion of the atleast one bitfield that indicates a number of bits N that are used todefine further transmission information; and a second portion of the atleast one bitfield that indicates one of a plurality of transmissioninformation modes that has 2^(N) states.

In some embodiments, signalling a group of users with a group bitmap inwhich the first portion of the bitfield indicates that the number ofbits is equal to one, comprises: indicating one of a plurality oftransmission information modes that has 2 states, the one of theplurality of modes being one of: a new packet toggle (NPT) bitfield thatsignals an alternating bit each time transmission of a new packet isstarted; a new HARQ packet start indicator bitfield that signals a newpacket HARQ transmission or a HARQ re-transmission; a multiple packet(MP) bitfield that signals that two packets are being transmitted to amobile station; a subpacket HARQ transmission index bitfield thatsignals a subpacket ID for HARQ transmissions for up to two states; apacket start frame (PSF) within a superframe that signals two startingpoints, one for each packet, per user, per frame; a packet informationfield states bitfield that signals two different packet sizes, in whichthe resource allocation size stays the same.

In some embodiments, signalling a group of users with a group bitmap inwhich the first portion of the bitfield indicates that the number ofbits is equal to two, comprises: indicating one of a plurality oftransmission information modes that has 4 states, the plurality of modesbeing one of: a subpacket HARQ transmission index SPID bitfield signalsa subpacket ID for HARQ transmissions for up to four states; a modifiedHARQ sub-packet identification bitfield that signals a new orsubsequently packet transmission; a new packet toggle (NPT) (multi-statetoggle) bitfield that signals a different bit each time transmission ofa new packet is started; a packet start frame (PSF) within superframethat signals up to four start points, one for each packet, per user, perframe to be signalled uniquely; a 4-packet bitfield that signals fourpackets are being transmitted to a mobile station; a 1-Bit modeselector, 1 Bit Mode bitfield that signals a first bit of the two bitsis used to select between two modes, while a second bit of the two modesindicates which of the two states the mode is in; and one or more hybridbitfields.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: for a given user,transmitting a configuration of the group bitmap to the user in amessage used to assign the user to a group of users.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: decoding the groupbitmap by a user is at least in part performed as a function of havingknowledge of the size of the group bitmap.

In some embodiments, the size of the group bitmap is: known by the user;determinable by a user; determinable to a set of possibilities by theuser.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod comprising: in a two dimensional transmission resource, a firstdimension being time and a second dimension being frequency: as adefault setting, allocating resources for at least one user in the twodimensional transmission resource in one of the two dimensions first andthe other dimension second.

In some embodiments, allocating resources for at least one user in thetwo dimensional transmission resource in one of the two dimensions firstand the other dimension second comprises: providing an indication thatallocating resources for at least one user can be performed in a reverseorder of the default setting.

In some embodiments, the two dimensional transmission resource comprisesat least one subzone within the time-frequency transmission resource,wherein each subzone comprises at least at least one transmission symbolover one at least one sub-carrier, the method comprising: allocatingresources for each subzone according to the same dimensional order ofallocation; or allocating resources for at least one subzone accordingto the default setting dimensional order of allocation and the remainderof subzones according to a reverse dimensional order of allocation.

In some embodiments, allocating resources for at least one user in thetwo dimensional transmission resource comprises: allocating resourcesthat are contiguous in at least one dimension.

In some embodiments, allocating resources that are contiguous in atleast one dimension comprises one of: allocating resources that arecontiguous logical channels; and allocating resources that arecontiguous physical channels.

In some embodiments, allocating resources for at least one user in thetwo dimensional transmission resource comprises: assigning an allocatedresource on a persistent basis.

In some embodiments, after a request has been granted for assigning anallocated resource on a persistent basis; for a first packet, which mayhave triggered the request for the assigning of an allocated resource ona persistent basis: encoding the first packet with a second packet andtransmitting the two packets on the persistently assigned resource; orscheduling the first packet separately from the allocated resource thatis assigned on a persistent basis.

In some embodiments, encoding the first packet with a second packet andtransmitting the two packets on the persistently assigned resourcefurther comprises at least one of: increasing a size of the allocatedresource for at least a first occurrence of the persistently assignedresource; and adjusting the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) andmaintaining a consistent size for the allocated resource.

In some embodiments, scheduling the first packet separately from theallocated resource that is assigned on a persistent basis furthercomprises: scheduling the first packet on a separate resource than thatof a resource assigned on the persistent basis, wherein the separateresource is scheduled: in a same frame as the first occurrence of theallocated resource that is assigned on a persistent basis; or in adifferent frame than that of the first occurrence of the allocatedresource that is assigned on a persistent basis.

In some embodiments, the method further comprise: providing anindication of whether encoding the first packet with a second packet isperformed or scheduling the first packet separately from the allocatedresource is performed.

According to yet a further aspect of the invention, there is a methodcomprising: in a two dimensional transmission resource, a firstdimension being time and a second dimension being frequency, allocatinga resource of a first size to at least one user in the two dimensionaltransmission resource and allocating a resource of a second size to atleast one user in the two dimensional transmission resource.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: multiplexing the atleast one user of a resource of the first size and the at least one userof a resource of the second size in at least one of the following ways:for two groups, starting each group from opposite ends of the resourcespace; each group is given boundaries of allocation space; each group isassigned starting (or ending) points for allocation space; allocation ofeach group in a different subzone; and allocation of each group in adifferent interlace.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentto those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the followingdescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to theattached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a cellular communication system on whichembodiments of the invention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram that illustrates an example of a framehaving subzones, in which one or more subzones having similar basicchannel unit (BCU) allocations are grouped together according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram that illustrates an every third frameinterlace structure, with a persistent resource allocation in everyfourth frame according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a group signalling bitmap configurationwith a resource availability bitmap, an assignment bitmap and a resourcepermutation bitfield according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a group signalling bitmap configurationwith an assignment bitmap and resource permutation bitmap according toan embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a group signalling bitmap configurationwith a resource availability bitmap, an assignment bitmap and a userpairing or user sets combination index field according to an embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a group signalling bitmap configurationwith an assignment bitmap and a user pairing or user sets combinationindex field according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an example of a distributed resourceavailability bitmap in which group and unicast resource allocations cancoexist according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an example of a central resourceavailability bitmap in which group and unicast allocations can coexistaccording to an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 10 is an exemplary table of numbers of combination, and associatedbit field that indicate possible pairings of users for particularnumbers of assignments;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating the timing of a persistentlyassigned resource in which a first two packets are encoded togetheraccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating the timing of a persistentlyassigned resource in which a first and second packet are sent separatelyaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13A is a schematic diagram of a group bitmap without a supplementaltransmission information field;

FIG. 13B is a schematic diagram of a group bitmap with a supplementaltransmission information field according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example base station that might be usedto implement some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an example wireless terminal that might beused to implement some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a logical breakdown of an example OFDMtransmitter architecture that might be used to implement someembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a logical breakdown of an example OFDMreceiver architecture that might be used to implement some embodimentsof the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a time-frequency resource forcollaborative spatial multiplexing (CSM) which can be allocated togroups of users according to an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 19 is a flow chart for an example of a method according to someembodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

For the purpose of providing context for embodiments of the inventionfor use in a communication system, FIG. 1 shows a base stationcontroller (BSC) 10 which controls wireless communications withinmultiple cells 12, which cells are served by corresponding base stations(BS) 14. In general, each base station 14 facilitates communicationsusing OFDM with mobile and/or wireless terminals 16, which are withinthe cell 12 associated with the corresponding base station 14. Themobile terminals 16 may be referred to as users or UE in the descriptionthat follows. The individual cells may have multiple sectors (notshown). The movement of the mobile terminals 16 in relation to the basestations 14 results in significant fluctuation in channel conditions. Asillustrated, the base stations 14 and mobile terminals 16 may includemultiple antennas to provide spatial diversity for communications.

Methods of transmission resource allocation described herein may beperformed for one or both of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL). UL istransmitting in a direction from a mobile station to a base station. DLis transmitting in a direction from the base station to the mobilestation.

Power Control and Allocation

In some embodiments, subzones can be created within a frame structure toallow power distribution over a set of assignments. A frame is aphysical construct for transmission that once it is set is not changed,while a subzone is a portion a frame that is configurable as ascheduling construct, whose size and shape may change within the framefor a given situation. For example, in an OFDM application, subzones mayconsist of multiples of 2 OFDM symbols over a block of sub carriers. Insome embodiments, the block of sub-carriers is the entire set of thesub-carriers of an available band.

In some embodiments, a basic channel unit (BCU) allocation block (BAB)may consist of one or more BCUs. A BCU is a two dimensionaltime-frequency transmission resource, i.e. a given number of symbolsover a given number of sub-carriers. The sub-carriers may be physicalsub-carries or logical sub-carriers that are permuted based on aparticular mapping of physical sub-carries to logical sub-carries. Insome embodiments, within a subzone, a BAB has a same number oftime-frequency resource blocks per OFDM symbol. In some embodiments,this may be true when averaged over one or more frames. While OFDMsymbols are referred to specifically, it is to be understood that OFDMis considered for illustrative purposes, and other transmission formatsare contemplated.

In some embodiments, different subzones may have different BABconfigurations. For example, a first subzone has 4 OFDM symbols in whicheach BAB has 2 BCUs. In another example, a second subzone has 4 OFDMsymbols, in which some BABs have 4 BCUs and other BABs have 8 BCUs. Inyet another example, a third subzone has 6 OFDM symbols, in which eachBAB has 12 BCUs.

In some embodiments power control can be done on a per subzone basis. Insome embodiments, each BAB is power controlled independently, given aBAB power constraint for one subzone. As power is constrained persubzone in such a case, a power constraint per OFDM symbol is alsosatisfied.

In some embodiments, packing of users in available resources is based onresource requirements of the users. In some embodiments, schedulingusers in subzones is based on random selection of the users to availableresources.

In some embodiments, a single subzone may occur over all OFDM symbols inthe frame.

Referring to FIG. 19, a method will now be described for allocatingtransmission resources in a time-frequency transmission resourcecomprising a plurality of transmission symbols, each on a plurality ofsub-carriers.

A first step 19-1 involves creating one or more subzones of thetime-frequency transmission resource wherein each subzone comprises atleast one block of channel units, each at east one block of channelunits comprising at least one sub-carrier used for all transmissionsymbols in the subzone.

A second step 19-2 involves scheduling at least one user in at least oneof the one or more subzones.

A third step 19-3 involves controlling distribution of transmissionpower over the one or more subzones.

Interference Diversity

In some embodiments, subzones can be grouped so that a similar BAB ispresent in one or more subzones that form the group. In someembodiments, diversity can occur by using sector-specific subzonegroups. That is groups of subzones may be specific to a sector of amulti-sector telecommunications cell.

In some embodiments, scrambling of resource assignment may occur betweensubzones of the same group. In some embodiments, scrambling of logicalresources of each BCU occurs for different OFDM symbols.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a frame 200 having subzones A, B, C, Dand E. Subzones A and D each have a first BAB, BAB 1 210 and a secondBAB 2 220. Subzones A and D are grouped together as they both includeBAB 1 210 and BAB 2 220. However, in the illustrated example, BAB 1 210and BAB 2 220 occur over different resource blocks in subzones A and D.In a different sector, it is possible that subzone A would not be pairedwith subzone D.

In some embodiments, transmission power is constrained over a group ofsubzones. Sector specific scrambling may increase the number of BABsfrom other sectors which a given BAB interferes with, thus averaging theinterference from those BABs. In some implementations, using suchscrambling of interferences results in a signal that has components frommany different BABs, which can be advantageous to system performance.

In some embodiments, for each frame, the mapping of logical to physicalresource blocks may be scrambled. This may also be referred to as aresource block permutation.

In some embodiments in which subzone groups are considered the groupingof subzones may be scrambled in different frames.

In some embodiments, if sub-frames are created in a frame, a subzone tosub-frame mapping is one-to-one.

In some embodiments, when persistent resource assignments are used,permuting the physical to logical resources, scrambling of the groupingsof subzones, sector specific scrambling, BAB sizes and locations are allpre-defined.

Scheduling Flow

In some embodiments, a scheduler will attempt to schedule a user in thesubzone with the most available resources. The scheduler may be locatedin a base station and perform scheduling for DL and UL. In particular,this may be the subzone with the most available bandwidth resources.After allocation for that user, the scheduler can repeat the process forthe next user.

In some embodiments, if a user cannot be scheduled in a given subzone,possibly due to, but not limited to, a lack of resources, the schedulerwill try to schedule the user in another subzone. If unsuccessful, thismay continue until all subzones have been attempted.

In some embodiments, after all resource assignments have been made,power may be redistributed among the resource assignments in a givensubzone.

Persistent Assignment and Termination

FIG. 3 illustrates a transmission structure that is formed of multipleframes 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 360, 370, 380 and 390. Each frame mayhave one or more subzone. In some embodiments the subzones are of asimilar type to those illustrated in FIG. 2. The transmission structurehas a persistent resource scheduled every fourth frame and has an everythird frame interlace. A persistent resource assignment is an assignmentof a predefined, usually reoccurring, resource to a user, such thatassignment to that user does not require further signalling for eachreoccurrence. Retransmissions are transmitted on a common interlace. Thepersistent resource is scheduled in frames 300, 340, and 380. Frames300, 330, 360 and 390 are a first interlace “0”, frames 310, 340 and 370are a second interlace “1” and frames 320, 350 and 380 are a thirdinterlace “2”.

In a given frame, during a silence interval, or possibly during packetarrival jitter, the persistent resource assigned to a first user may notbe needed for that first user's packet transmission. This resource canthen be reassigned to another user. If other users have their first HARQtransmissions persistently assigned, then the first user's persistentresource assignment may be used for re-transmissions of other usersduring the given frame. The persistent resource assignment is onlyreassigned for the given frame. At the next occurrence of the persistentresource assignment, the same decision flow is repeated to determine ifthe first user has need of the persistent resource. The user who isassigned a persistent resource has top priority when considering who mayuse the resource.

FIG. 3 is merely an example, and it is to be understood that theassignment of a persistent resource to a given periodic resource and aparticular interlace are implementation specific parameters.

In some embodiments, persistent resource assignment may be used for oneor more HARQ transmissions. An example implementation utilizespersistent resource assignment for a first HARQ transmission. Thepredefined persistent resource occurs regularly at an interval for thefirst HARQ transmission of the user. In some embodiments,re-transmissions are non-persistent. In some embodiments,re-transmissions are assigned by a unicast signalling scheme. In someembodiments, re-transmissions are signalled using group signalling.

In synchronous HARQ, re-transmissions occur after the originaltransmissions in a same interlace as the first transmission. In someembodiments, the persistent resource may or may not re-occur in the sameinterlace. In the illustrated example, as the persistent resourceassignment is every fourth frame and there are three interlaces, thepersistent resource only occurs in the same interlace every twelfthframe.

In some embodiments, the persistent resource can be released when not inuse. An example of when a persistent resource may be released is duringa silence period in a VoIP call. The persistent assignment may bereleased as a result of one or more actions including, but not limitedto: timeout since last transmission; after N packet transmission orreception failures, where N=>1; explicit deassignment of resources;implicit deassignment of resources by reassignment of resources toanother user.

In some embodiments, a persistent resource may not be needed by theuser. This may occur for any number of reasons including, but notlimited to, silence intervals (for VoIP), delayed packet arrival due tojitter, and HARQ early termination. In some embodiments when thepersistent resource is not needed by the user, the resource may bereassigned for other transmissions or re-transmissions. In someembodiments, temporary assignment of the persistent resource to anotheruser does not deassign the persistent allocation to the original user.

In some embodiments, the persistent allocation may be deassigned by alonger-term timeout, if no packet is successfully received.

A persistent assignment may be terminated by a failure to correctlydecode a HARQ transmission after N packets, where N is known orconfigured. A persistent assignment may be terminated due to a shorttimeout (for example, ˜20-40 ms) during which a packet was not correctlydecoded. Allowing termination of a persistent resource due to thesereasons may be advantageous when there are no transmissions duringsilence periods.

A persistent assignment may be terminated due to a long timeout (forexample, ˜200-300 ms) over which a packet was not correctly decoded. Thetimeout duration may be longer than an interval of packets transmittedduring a silence interval.

In some embodiments, during the silence interval, if a packet isreceived, the persistent resource is maintained. Otherwise, thepersistent resource will be terminated when a timeout timer expires.

Allowing termination of a persistent resource due to one or more of theabove reasons may be advantageous when there are comfort noise, silenceindicator packets or other transmissions that may occur during silenceperiods of a voice call.

In some embodiments, a persistent resource is reassigned to other userswhen not in use.

In some embodiments, indication of a persistent assignment in which theresource is temporarily assigned to other users can be specified in anoriginal message that defines the persistent assignment. In someembodiments, this may also implicitly specify the associated persistentassignment termination conditions. This may be a message type of abitfield indicator.

In some embodiments, power control adaptation may be used for resourceallocation of persistent and/or non-persistent assignments.

Resource/Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) Adaptation and PersistentTransmissions

In some embodiments, power control is used to achieve transmissiontargets for data packets. Examples of transmission targets may include,but are not limited to, bit error rate (BER), packet error rate (PER),rates of transmission, quality of service (QoS), Delay, and outagecriteria. In other embodiments, resource/modulation coding scheme (MCS)adaptation is used.

Resource/MCS adaptation may involve MCS selection based on CQI and MCSselection thresholds. The selection thresholds may include variablemargin levels for the thresholds and/or may be adjusted to achieve somemetric, which may include, but are not limited to, a HARQ terminationtarget, a packet error rate (PER), a residual PER, or a lowest delay.

Resource/MCS adaptation may involve determination of resource size basedon one or more of: packet size; the MCS; and, if present, any type ofspatial multiplexing method that may be a part of the transmissionprocess.

In some embodiments a persistent resource assignment is used for firstHARQ transmissions, and the assignment of the persistent resource may beknown to a user, determinable by the user, or determinable by the userfrom a known set of MCSs being used for transmission. In someembodiments, HARQ re-transmissions, if needed, are allocatednon-persistently by using resource/MCS adaptation. In someimplementations, a resource map is used to indicate which resources areavailable or not currently being used for active persistent resourceassignments. A particular example is a resource availability bitmapdescribed below.

For example, first HARQ transmissions may be persistently assigned to aparticular resource for a given user. For re-transmissions,non-persistent assignments may be used. The resources assigned for eachre-transmission are adaptively chosen based on, but not limited to, oneor more of: information of channel conditions; MCS selection thresholds;and packet size (e.g. bits).

Resources for the re-transmissions may be allocated to the user usingone or more of: an indication of assigned resources; an indication ofassigned resources and an indication of available resources; anindication of assigned resources and an indication of non-availableresources; and an indication of an assignment and other assignments insome resource set from which the assignment is derived.

In some embodiments, allocation of transmission power is fixed for eachtransmission and re-transmission. In some cases the power may change foreach re-transmission, but non-adaptively with respect to channelconditions.

Some embodiments of this invention include a mechanism for resourceallocation of services including, but not limited to, continuous andreal time services. Several examples of a real time service are VoIP,video telephony (VT), and UL gaming. In some embodiments, the methodsdescribed herein may aid in improving the flexibility of assigningresources for continuous and real time services.

In some embodiments of the invention, group allocation of resources isconsidered. Group allocation may be performed by signalling groups ofusers together using a bitmap or bitmaps. In some embodiments, the useof group allocations may be improved by reducing the size of groups andusing hypothesis detection in each frame to decode the bitmaps. In someembodiments, additional fields in the bitmap, if present, supportcollaborative MIMO and variable resource allocation, as will bediscussed in detail below.

In some embodiments, techniques described herein can be combined with acontrol channel signalling method using resource partitions. An exampleof such a control channel signalling method is described in commonlyowned patent application Ser. No. 12/202,741 filed Sep. 2, 2008, whichis incorporated herein by reference in it's entirety.

In some embodiments, unicast signalling may be used for assignmentand/or allocations of user traffic. Such a signalling scheme is flexiblein allocating resource to various locations and of various sizes. Theunicast scheduling scheme may also include other parameters that can beuniquely specified for a given assignment. In some embodiments, unicastsignalling can appear at a known position in the resource partition,possibly the beginning. In these cases, the intended users(s) can deriveparameters of the assignment by decoding the signalling message. In someembodiments, the position of the signalling is only known to be in oneof many finite positions.

In some embodiments, bitmap signalling can be used for persistentassignment assignments, or to indicate persistent assignments.

In some embodiments, group assignment can be used with a partition-typeassignment structure, with one or more partitions being used for thegroup assignment. In some embodiments, HARQ re-transmissions are alsosent within the partitions.

In some embodiments, bitmap structure, bitmap configuration, bitmapsize, bitmap fields or other parameters may be different for differentgroup bitmaps within the same frame, subframe or other time-frequencyresource in which multiple group bits maps coexist.

In some embodiments, in order to facilitate hypothesis detection todecode bitmaps, the bitmap length (which in some cases includeadditional bitfields in the bitmap) are: known by a user; determinableby a user; or determinable to a set of possibilities by a user. In someembodiments, as a size of some additional bitfields in a given partitionare related to a number of assignments in the given partition, bitfieldsizes may be derived from: a number of resources in the given partitionand/or a number of resources per assignment in the given partition.

When considering the formation of groups of users for allocation ofresources, users are divided into groups based on particular parameters.Examples of parameters include, but are not limited to: frequency ofresource assignments, which in some embodiments may be related toservice class; geometry, which may be related to resource allocation aswell; and interlace assignment group. In some embodiments, groups mayalso have one or more of the same MIMO mode; resource allocation size;and MCS (or at least, a subset of all MCSs so reasonable hypothesisdetection).

In some embodiments, it is possible to wait until many users in a grouphave packets to transmit, and then use a group assignment. In someembodiments, a larger regular group bitmap transmission interval is usedfor this purposes and/or limiting the sizes of groups.

For groups that are based on service class, it is understood that someservices utilize frequent transmission (VoIP), while other servicesutilize less frequent transmission.

In some embodiments, when groups are based on geometry, the groupsignalling may use an interlace assignment or an interlace offsetassignment for first HARQ packet transmission as described above. Insome embodiments, groups are formed based on geometry, which may beadvantageous for power efficiency.

In some embodiments, group signalling is sent for every transmission andretransmission.

In some embodiments, all users in a group have a same “firsttransmission frame”, meaning that all of the users receive a first HARQtransmission of a subpacket at the same time. This may be true for eachoccurrence of a new packet.

In some embodiments, all users in a group may be assigned to start firstHARQ transmissions on the same reoccurring frame. In such a case, abitmap may be omitted if no users require a re-transmission oradditional subsequent retransmission.

In some embodiments, resource partitions in a time frequency resource,such as, for example a frame, are created. Partitions are a set of oneor more resource blocks that may or may not be a contiguous resourceset. In examples described herein, partitions are considered to becreated from “ordered” resources, where the order is known at receiversand transmitters, but the order of the resources are not necessarilycontiguous physical resources. They may be logical resources resultingfrom a mapping, or permutation, of physical resources.

In some embodiments, frequency selective scheduling is also supportedwithin group structure. Frequency selective scheduling permits channelconstruction through physically adjacent tones. With frequency selectivetransmissions, adaptive matching of modulation, coding, and other signaland protocol parameters to conditions of a wireless link may beperformed to increase the likelihood of successful receipt of data by areceiving entity over a wireless link.

Group Signalling

In some implementations, group resource assignment resource partition(s)are created. This may include a single partition or multiple partitionsformed in the time-frequency resource.

Resource partitions can be used for group signalling or unicastsignalling. Group signalling can use one or more of the following typesof bitmaps: a resource availability bitmap (RAB); an assignment bitmap;a resource permutation index; and a pairing or set combination index.Additional bitfields may be included with the various bitmaps.

The terms bitmap and bitfield are used to define a field of bits usedfor allocation signaling, for example a resource allocation message. Theterms are substantially interchangeable in that they both are used todefine the bits used for allocation signalling. Use of one term or theother when applied to a given field of bits is not intended to limit thescope of the invention.

Resource Availability Bitmap (RAB)

The RAB has a length that may be fixed, based on another parameter, orderivable from a partition size. Each bit in the bitmap maps to adefined resource block or set of resource blocks. An example of aresource block is a basic channel unit (BCU) that is a time-frequencyresource having one or more OFDM symbols over a set one or moresub-carriers. In some embodiments, the RAB may be configured to includeentries for resources for signalling as well as data. In otherembodiments, such entries will not be included.

Each bit in the RAB indicates if an associated resource is in use, or isavailable for assignment. The length of the RAB is equal to the numberof resources in a given partition for group traffic, after resources forgroup signalling, if any, are removed.

In some embodiments, the bitmap may be known as persistent assignmentbitmap.

In some embodiments, users can derive their resource allocation fromsignalling and the RAB.

In some embodiments, persistent assignments that are in use can beindicated by this bitmap. In some embodiments, resources associated withpersistent assignments that are not in use because of early HARQtermination, silence periods or otherwise, can be indicated as availablein the resource availability bitmap.

Assignment Bitmap

Users are assigned positions in a given partition with the use of theassignment bitmap. Each bit in the assignment bitmap allows for aresource assignment. In some embodiments, multiple positions may beassigned to a single user, or positions may also be shared.

Users can determine their allocation by reading the entire assignmentbitmap in some predefined order, such as left-to-right, for example.

A first indicated assignment in the assignment bitmap is assigned afirst available resource block of the partition; a second indicatedassignment in the bitmap is assigned a second available resource block,and so on, for each available resource block in the partition.

The length of the assignment bitmap can be signalled to users in theuser group.

In some embodiments, this assignment may also be used to indicate eachHARQ transmission and re-transmission.

Resource Permutation Index Bitmap (Fixed or Determinable LengthBitfield)

This bitmap is used to assign different numbers of resources to users ofa given group in a given partition.

In some embodiments, this bitmap indicates the resource size for eachassignment in the given partition by specifying an index, which directlyor indirectly defines a permutation of resources assignments for thepartitions.

In some embodiments, the length of this field is large enough to providesignalling for the maximum number of partitions possible in a frame. Insome embodiments, the length of the bitmap is fixed. In someembodiments, for the purposes of hypothesis detection, the length of thebitmap is known by the user, determinable by the user, or determinableto a set of possibilities by the user.

In some embodiments, if used with a localized channelization scheme,which is used for contiguous physical sub-carriers, the ResourcePermutation Index bitmap can be used for frequency selective scheduling.

In some embodiments, limits can be imposed on allocation sizes ofpermutations. For example, for a partition of 30 resources, there are512 possible permutations of assigning resources. This results in a9-bit binary bitfield to express all 512 permutations. If the partitionof 30 resources has a maximum assignment is two resource blocks, thereare 89 possible permutations for assigning the resource blocks. Thisresults in a 7-bit binary bitfield to express all 89 permutations.

Table 1 shows a partition-to-permutation index mapping for a partitionhaving 4 resource blocks allocated for data traffic. The “Partitiondivisions” column indicates the number of resource blocks assigned peruser. For instance, “1,1,1,1” indicates that there are four separateusers assigned one resource block each. This assignment is mapped to anindex number “0” having a bitmap value “000”. The assignment “1,1,2”indicates that there are three separate users, the first two are eachassigned one resource block and the third user is assigned two resourceblocks. This assignment is mapped to an index number “1” having a bitmapvalue “001”. The remainder of the partition-to-permutation index mappingvalues in the “Partition divisions” column can be similarly defined.

TABLE 1 Permutations of Partitions for Four Resource Blocks Partitiondivisions (in resource blocks) Index number Bitmap value 1, 1, 1, 1 0000 1, 1, 2 1 001 1, 2, 1 2 010 2, 1, 1 3 011 3, 1 4 100 1, 3 5 101 2, 26 110 4 7 111

In some embodiments, the resource permutation index bitmap may bereplaced by an allocation size bitmap. An allocation size bitmap has anentry for each assignment indicated by the assignment bitmap, the valueof the entry maps to the size allocation. For example, a ‘0’ mayindicate 1 resource, and a “1” indicates 2 resources. In someembodiments, each entry has multiple bits so that several sizes can beindicated.

User Pairing or User Sets Combination Index Bitmap (Fixed orDeterminable Length Bit Field)

In some embodiments, possibly for, but not limited to, collaborativeMIMO for uplink transmission, pairs or sets of users can be dynamicallyselected for transmission on the same time-frequency resource. Incollaborative MIMO, two or more separate mobile stations share atransmission resource when communicating with a base station. In someembodiments, other MIMO methods, such as multi-user MIMO for DLtransmission can be supported using these methods in the same manner.

Users with indicated assignments are combined into pairs, triples,quadruples, etc. and the bitmap indicates an index that corresponds tothe combinations of pairs or sets of assigned users. In someembodiments, this allows selected multiple users to be assigned to thesame resource for applications such as UL or DL MIMO.

In some embodiments, a pair or set of consecutively indicated assignmentusers from the same bitmap can use the same resource block(s). In someembodiments, such a feature and a number of users sharing the resourceblock(s) can be configured for the group. The configuration may bedynamically configurable or used for a longer-term.

In some embodiments, if sets of consecutive users are assigned to thesame resource block(s), a scheduler may choose not to schedule someusers in a given group in a given frame to allow certain pairings orsets of users to be scheduled on the same resource.

In some embodiments, the scheduler may choose to schedule multiplegroups to the same resource to allow certain pairings or sets of user tobe scheduled on the same resource.

In some embodiments, an index is sent in a bitmap to indicate whichcombinations of users, in pairs or sets, are intended. The index can mapto an entry in a table of combinations of user pairs or users sets. Insome embodiments, the index is sent for every occurrence of a givengroup signalling and hence, the combinations of user pairings or usersets may change dynamically.

In some embodiments, the bitmap appears only on bitmaps for users withrelatively high geometry. Users that have high geometry are users thathave good long-term channel conditions for communicating with theirserving base station. Therefore, it is desirable in some situations toprovide bitmaps for users with generally good channel conditions.

In some embodiments, the bitmap changes as a function of a number ofresource assignments, which may be determinable by the user. In someembodiments, the bitfield may be over provisioned so that its length maybe easily determined.

In some embodiments, size will be fixed for hypothesis detection ofgroup. Alternatively, if there are no persistent assignments, size canbe derived from partition size and may not be fixed.

In some embodiments, the length of the bitmap is large enough to signalthe maximum number of user pairing or user set combinations possible ina given group of users.

In some embodiments the length of the bitmap can be fixed. In someembodiments, this field length may be known by the user, determinable bythe user, or determinable to a set of possibilities by the user.

In some embodiments, the length of field is large enough to indicateeach of the possible user pairing or user set combinations of K userswith indicated assignments, where K is one of: the maximum number ofassignments, determined by i) the size of the partition (from whichresources for data can be derived or ii) the minimum assignment size;the size of a user set (either single, pairs, triples, etc.); themaximum number of assignments as given by the length of the assignmentbitmap and the size of a user set (either single, pairs, triples, etc.);and the minimum of any of the above criteria.

In some embodiments where some resources of the partition are notavailable due to resources being persistently assigned, or otherwiseunavailable, the length of the user pairing or user sets combinationindex bitmap, can be determined in the manner described above.

Table 2 shows a user combination-to-index mapping to indicate userassignments and considering only pairs of users, or otherwise referredto as sets of two. The “Users combinations” column indicates the pairsof users being considered. For instance, “1 and 2; 3 and 4” indicatesthat users 1 and 2 are grouped together as a pair and users 3 and 4 aregrouped together. These combinations are mapped to an index number “0”having a bitmap value “000”. The groupings “1 and 3; 2 and 4” indicatethat users 1 and 3 are grouped together as a pair and users 2 and 4 aregrouped together. These combinations are mapped to an index number “1”having a bitmap value “001”. The remainder of the combination-to-indexmapping values in the “Users combinations” column can be similarlydefined.

TABLE 2 4 Assignments, Sets of 2 Users combinations (e.g. users numbered1 through 4 in order of assignment in bitmap) Index number Bitmap 1 and2; 3 and 4 0 000 1 and 3; 2 and 4 1 001 1 and 4; 2 and 3 2 010 Reservedfield 3 011

While Table 2 is an illustrative example for a small number ofcombinations for pairs of users, it is to be understood, that the sameprinciple can be applied to larger numbers of users, and sets of thoseusers, as opposed to only pairs, as shown in Table 2.

In another example, it can be seen that users are paired from multiplebitmaps. For instance, a 10 bit bitmap (with four indicated assignments)for low geometry (poor long term channel conditions) users isconcatenated with an 8 bit bitmap (with two indicated assignments) forhigh geometry users to form an 18 bit bitmap with a total of sixindicated assignments. As user sets of two are desired, the bitmap isdivided into two partitions with approximately equal indicatedassignments in each. In this case, the bitmap is divided such that eachportion has three of the six indicated assignments.

Without additional ordering indication, the first indicated assignmentsfrom each bitmap partition (i.e. first and fourth indicated assignmentsfrom the concatenated 18 bit bitmap are paired together on a firstresource. The second indicated assignments from each partition arepaired together for assignment on a second resource, etc.

Hence the users assigned to the three resources, denoted by the order ofindicated assignment in the concentrated bitmap are: 1 and 4; 2 and 5; 3and 6.

TABLE 3 User sets combination index: 6 assignments, sets of 2 Userscombinations (Users numbered 1 through 6 in order of indicatedassignment in bitmap) {first resource, second resource, third resource}Index number Index bitfield 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 0 0000 1 and 2, 3and 5, 4 and 6, 1 0001 1 and 2, 3 and 6, 4 and 5, 2 0010 1 and 3, 2 and4, 5 and 6, 3 0011 1 and 3, 2 and 5, 4 and 6, 4 0100 1 and 3, 3 and 6, 4and 5, 5 0101 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 5 and 6, 6 0110 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and6, 7 0111 1 and 4, 2 and 6, 3 and 5, 8 1000 1 and 5, 2 and 3, 4 and 6, 91001 1 and 5, 2 and 4, 3 and 6, 10 1010 1 and 5, 2 and 6, 3 and 4, 111011 1 and 6, 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 12 1100 1 and 6, 2 and 4, 3 and 5, 131101 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, 14 1110 Reserved 15 1111

Alternatively, ordering can be specified for one or more of thepartitions. A user set combination index can be used with a user setsize of 1 to effectively change the order of the indicated assignmentsfor one of the partitions. In such an implementation, a user setcombination index can be appended to the concatenated 18 bit bitmap tospecify the ordering of the first partition indicated assignments.

TABLE 4 3 Assignments, sets of 1 User combinations Index Number Indexbitfield 1, 2, 3 0 000 1, 3, 2 1 001 2, 1, 3 2 010 2, 3, 1 3 011 3, 1, 24 100 3, 2, 1 5 101 6 110 7 111

For example, Table 4 may be used to relate a sent index bitfield with anordering of the first partition's assignments. If “011” is sent, theorder of indicated assignments in the bitmap 1, 2, 3 are ordered to 2,3, 1 for the pairing process.

Hence the users assigned to the 3 resources, denoted by the order ofindicated assignment in the concentrated bitmap are: 2 and 4; 3 and 5; 1and 6;

In some embodiments, different organization of sets, some of which mayrequire larger bitmaps, are possible, and can be specified by thisbitmap including, but not limited to, ordering of sets of users and/orpositioning of sets of users.

In some embodiments, the User Pairing or User Sets Combination IndexBitmap may be omitted and a predefined user set technique is usedinstead to identify user pairs and/or sets. For example, a group bitmapmay be configured so that consecutive pairs of users with assignmentindications are assigned to the same resource. For example, user 1 anduser 2 are assigned the first available resource block, user 3 and user4 are assigned the second available resource block.

In some embodiments, a user set may be of “size 1”, meaning the set isonly for an individual user, so that the user pairing or user setscombination index bitmap specifies the individual allocation order ofthe users. In a particular example, there are four assignments indicatedby the assignment bitmap, and they are ordered for users 1, 2, 3 and 4.There are 24 ways to order these four users. A 5-bit field (enabling amaximum of 32 different values) could be used to signal each of these 24possibilities, as needed.

In some embodiments, the bitmap can be used to arrange users in adesired order. In some embodiments, the bitmap can be used for frequencyselective scheduling.

In some embodiment's power efficiency and flexibility of transmissionmay be improved by using smaller group sizes so that users may befurther subdivided into groups to lower group sizes and/or hypothesisdetection of group bitmaps. Power efficiency and flexibility oftransmission may be improved by using hypothesis detection of groupbitmaps as it allows bitmaps to be sent at variable times, with variablesizes and/or in variable locations.

When allocated resources are non-persistent, the bitmap sizes should beknown. When persistent assignments are used, the bitmaps can be overprovisioned so that the length of the bitmap may be more easilydetermined. The bitmap length of the bitmap may be more easilydetermined because if the bitmap is overprovisioned to have a maximumallowable length, the length of the bitmap is at least determinable,enabling it to be decoded correctly.

In some embodiments, a group's resources are multiplexed via acombination index. This can be the ‘main’ combination index bitmap, oran additional bitmap within the ‘group assignment zone’.

It is also possible to use multiple groups in a partition, where groupresources are multiplexed by other methods. In some embodiments this mayinclude providing an indication of resources used by other bitmaps, forexample, but not limited to, a resource availability bitmap or areserved resource header. In some embodiments this may include a userreading multiple bitmaps, its own bitmap and other group's bitmaps, todetermine the location of the user's assignment.

Group Bitmap Functioning

Reference will now be made to the examples of FIGS. 4 to 7 thatdescribed the use of the resource permutation index and user pairing oruser set combination index. Also discussed are examples of determining aminimum bit length of these particular bitmaps.

In the following examples, the minimum assignment size is one resourceblock. In some implementations this may be a single BCU.

In the following examples, a size of the resource availability bitmap,if present, may be determined from the partition size. As describedabove, the size of resources used for signalling may have to becalculated and removed from the partition size.

In the following examples, the size of the assignment bitmap can bedetermined from a message sent to users when the users join a respectivegroup, or when parameters are changed, or at some other desired time.

Presence of the resource availability bitmap can be determined, forexample, based upon whether a partition location is in a “persistentzone” or a “non-persistent zone” of a time-frequency resource. Theresource availability bitmap will be present in the “persistent zone”,but will not be present in the “non-persistent zone”.

FIG. 4 illustrates a group signalling bitmap configuration 400 includinga resource availability bitmap (RAB) 410, an assignment bitmap 420 and aresource permutation index bitmap 430. The RAB 410 has 7 bits, one bitcorresponding to each assigned resource to indicate its availability.The “1” value in bit locations 2 and 5 (counting from left to right)indicate that the resource assignments are not available, while the “0”value in bit locations 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 indicate that the resourceassignments are available. The assignment bitmap 420 has 6 bits, one bitfor possible assignment to each user. The “1” value in bit locations 1,3, 4 and 6 of assignment bitmap 420 indicate that users UE₁₂, UE₃₀, UE₄₆and UE₂₄ are assigned a resource and the “0” value in bit locations 2and 5 indicate that users UE₃ and UE₄ are not assigned a resource. Theresource permutation bitmap 430 has 5 bits.

A partition size for FIG. 4, defined in resource blocks, is X=7+anyresources used for signalling. The length of the bitmap used forsignalling is determined by:

Length=CRC size (predefined fixed number of bits)+Resource availabilitybitmap size (7 bits, one for each resource block)+assignment bitmap size(6 bits)+resource permutation field bitmap size (5 bits).

Using the procedure described previously, the length of the resourcepermutation index bitmap can be determined by the maximum number ofpartitions given X assignments.

In some embodiments, the length of the resource permutation index bitmapis large enough to indicate for each of the possible partitions having Xresource blocks, where X is one of:

the maximum number of assignments, determined by either i) the size ofthe partition (from which resources for data can be derived) or ii) theminimum assignment size;

the maximum number of assignments as given by the length of theassignment bitmap; and

the minimum value of any of the above criteria.

With regard to FIG. 4, the maximum number of assignments, determined bythe size of the partition for group traffic, is equal to 7 as the numberof partitions for group traffic equals 7 and the minimum assignment sizeis 1 resource per partition.

However, the maximum number of assignments determined by the minimumassignment size, is given by the bit length of the assignment bitmap.This bit length of the assignment bitmap is only 6, allowing onepossible assignment for each user.

As a result, the resource permutation index bitmap needs to specify thepermutations of 6 resources into partitions. There are 32 way to divide6 resources into the partitions, and hence the bitmap size is 5 bits.

In the example of FIG. 4, the bitmap “01100” in resource permutationindex bitmap 430 is an index, for example from a permutation lookuptable similar in format to Table 1 above, that corresponds to apartitioning of “1,1,2,1”, which indicates that UE₁₂, UE₃₀, and UE₂₄have 1 resource each, and UE₄₆ is assigned 2 resources.

In some embodiments where some resources of the partition are notavailable due to being assigned persistently or otherwise unavailable,the length of the resource permutation bitmap is determined as in themanner described above.

FIG. 5 illustrates a group signalling bitmap configuration 500 includingan assignment bitmap 520 and a resource permutation index bitmap 540.The assignment bitmap 520 has the same configuration as in FIG. 4. Theresource permutation bitmap 540 has only 4 bits.

A partition size, defined in resource blocks, is X=5+any resources forsignalling. The length of the bitmap is determined by:

Length=CRC size (predefined fixed number of bits)+assignment bitmap size(6 bits)+resource permutation index bitmap size (4 bits).

Using the procedure described previously, the length of resourcepermutation field can be found by the maximum number of partitions givenX assignments, where X is the maximum number of assignments. With regardto FIG. 5, the maximum number of assignments, determined by the size ofthe partition for group traffic is equal to 5, as the number ofpartitions for group traffic equals 5 and the minimum assignment size is1 resource per partition.

However, the maximum number of assignments, determined by the minimumassignment size as given by the length of the assignment bitmap is 6, asthere are only 6 bits, one possible assignment for each user.

As a result, the resource permutation index bitmap needs to specifycombinations of 5 resources into partitions. There are 15 possible waysto divide 5 resources into partitions, and hence the bitmap is 4 bits.

In the example of FIG. 5, the bitmap “0110” in resource permutationindex 540 is an index, for example from a permutation lookup tablesimilar in format to Table 1 above, that corresponds to a partitioningof “1, 1, 2, 1”, which indicates that UE₁₂, UE₃₀, and UE₂₄ have 1resource each, and UE₄₆ is assigned 2 resources.

FIG. 6 illustrates a group signalling bitmap configuration 600 includinga resource availability bitmap (RAB) 610, an assignment bitmap 620 and ausers pairing or sets combination index bitmap 630. The RAB 610 has 3bits, one bit corresponding to each assigned resource to indicate itsavailability. The “1” value in bit location 2 indicates that theresource assignment is not available, while the “0” value in bitlocations 1 and 3 indicates that the resource assignments are available.The assignment bitmap 620 has a similar format as the assignment bitmap420 in FIG. 4. The users pairing or sets combination index bitmap 630has 4 bits.

A partition size, defined in resource elements, is X=3+any resources forsignalling. The group is configured to allow pairs of users to share anindicated resource, for example UL collaborative MIMO. The length of thebitmap is determined by:

Length=CRC size (predefined fixed number of bits)+Resource availabilitybitmap size (3 bits)+assignment bitmap size (6 bits)+user pairing orsets combination index bitmap size (4 bits).

Using the procedure described previously, the length of user pairing orsets combination index field can be found by the maximum number ofpartitions given X assignments, where X is the maximum number ofassignments. With regard to FIG. 6, the maximum number of assignments,determined by the size of the partition for group traffic is equal to 6,as the number of partitions for group traffic equals 3 and the minimumassignment size is 1 resource per partition, but there are two UEs perresource, so there are 2 resources per partition.

The maximum number of assignments, determined by the minimum assignmentsize as given by the length of the assignment bitmap is 6, as there are6 bits.

As a result, the user pairing or sets index bitmap needs to specifycombinations of 6 resources into partitions. There are 15 possible waysto divide 5 resources into partitions, and hence the bitmap is 4 bits inlength.

In the example of FIG. 6, the bitmap “0100” in user pairing or setsindex bitmap 630 is an index, for example from a combination lookuptable similar in format to Table 2 above, that corresponds to apartitioning of “pairing 1 with 3 and 2 with 4”, thus UE₁₂, and UE₄₆ areassigned the first resource, and UE₂₄ and UE₃₀ are assigned the thirdresource, which is the second resource available, as the second resourceis indicated not to be available in the resource availability bitmap610.

FIG. 7 illustrates a portion of a group signalling bitmap configurationincluding an assignment bitmap 720 and a user pairing or sets indexbitmap 740. The assignment bitmap 720 has the same configuration as inFIG. 6. The resource permutation bitmap 740 has only 2 bits.

A partition size, defined in resource elements, is X=2+any resources forsignalling. The group is configured to allow pairs of users to share anindicated resource. The length of the bitmap is determined by:

Length=CRC size (predefined fixed number of bits)+assignment bitmap size(6 bits)+resource permutation index bitmap size (2 bits).

Using the procedure described previously, the length of resourcepermutation field can be found by the maximum number of partitions givenX assignments, where X is the maximum number of assignments. With regardto FIG. 7, the maximum number of assignments, determined by the size ofthe partition for group traffic is equal to 4, as the number ofpartitions for group traffic equals 2 and the minimum assignment size is1 resource per partition, but there are two UEs per resource, so thereare 2 resources per partition.

However, the maximum number of assignments, determined by the minimumassignment size as given by the length of the assignment bitmap is 6, asthere are 6 bits.

As a result, the user pairing or sets index bitmap needs to specifycombinations of 4 resources into partitions. There are 3 possible waysto divide 4 resources into partitions, and hence the bitmap is 2 bits inlength.

In the example of FIG. 7, the bitmap “01” in user pairing or sets indexbitmap 740 is an index, for example from a user pairing or setscombination lookup table similar in format to Table 2 above, thatcorresponds to a partitioning of “pairing 1 with 3 and 2 with 4”, thusUE₁₂, and UE₄₆ are assigned the first resource, and UE₂₄ and UE₃₀ areassigned the second resource.

In some embodiments, the pairing or user set combination index bitmapcan be used together with a resource permutation index bitmap as part ofthe resource allocation signalling.

In some embodiments, the length can be expressed as

Length=Assignment bitmap bits (# of users positions in group, does notchange dynamically)+# of bits from assignment-dependent field length(and/or fixed fields)+CRC.

In some embodiments, if there are persistent assignments, and when froman indication of the partition size, or when derived from the partitionsize, the number of assigned resources to a group are known, theresource availability bitmap field length is known. An exact number ofassignments may not known, but can be over provisioned for a givenresource partition size. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the numberof assignments can be fixed.

In some embodiments, the length can be expressed as

Length=resource partition size dependent field(s)+Assignment bitmap bits(# of users in group, does not change dynamically)+# of bits fromassignment-dependent field length over provisioned (and/or fixedfields)+CRC bits.

In some embodiments persistent assignments may be allowed to span adesignated resource space, which may be all of the resource space. Theindication of what resources are assigned to persistent users (and inuse) can occur by the following methods.

In some embodiments, when supporting persistent assignments, combinationindex signalling, such as that described in commonly owned patentapplication Ser. No. 12/202,741 filed Sep. 2, 2008 may be used toprovide an indication of what resources are in use.

In some embodiments, at least one RAB is used per partition, eachtransmitted to a target user of a respective partition. This is referredto herein as a distributed RAB approach in which each partition has itsown RAB. Such an approach may be used for group and non-grouppartitions. If a combination index partition structure is used, thecombination index partitions are calculated including persistentassignment resources, so users can subtract assignments from theirallocation.

In some embodiments, an indication of all persistent assignments acrossthe entire resource can be provided with the resource availabilitybitmap (RAB) and broadcast to all users who require it. This is referredto herein as a central RAB approach in which there is a single RABlocated prior to the various partitions (and/or zones that may definepersistent and non-persistent zones) of a frame that define the resourceavailability for each of the partitions.

In some embodiments the time-frequency resource is divided into twozones, one zone which is designated to allow persistent assignment(persistent zone), and the other zone that does not allow persistentassignment (non-persistent zone). One or more of or each of these zonesmay be present. Furthermore, the zones need not be physically contiguousresources, but rather a collection of one or more logical resources.

In some embodiments, signalling within the persistent zone makes use ofa previously described indication of persistently allocated resourcesthat are in use. Signalling within the non-persistent zone does notrequire an indication of persistent assignments.

In some embodiments, using at least one RAB per partition in thepersistent zone, it can be determined whether or not an RAB is presentin the signalling by determination of a zone type of the assignment. Inimplementations where resource partitions are indicated, the location ofthe traffic partition can determine whether an RAB is present in theassociated signalling message for a given partition.

Reference will now be made to FIGS. 8 and 9 when describing exampleimplementations of using a distributed RAB approach and centralized RABapproach.

FIG. 8 illustrates an implementation using a distributed RAB. In theillustrated example one or both of group and unicast resourceallocations may be included in the frame.

FIG. 8 illustrates at least part of a time-frequency resource 800,having a combination index 810, a persistent zone 820 that has at leastsome resources that are persistently assigned, and a non-persistent zone830 that has no persistently assigned resources. The time-frequencyresource may be a frame or sub-frame, depending on which particulartelecommunication standard the described method is applied. In thepersistent zone there are three partitions 821,824,827. Two of thepartitions 821,824 are group assignments and have signalling bitmaps822,825, respectively, which may be of a type described in detail above.The third assignment 827 is a unicast assignment and has a signallingbitmap 828.

The combination index 810 may be a resource availability index used indefining a control channel such as that described in commonly ownedpatent application Ser. No. 12/202,741 filed Sep. 2, 2008. Thecombination index 810 may be used to define the resources used for thevarious partitions in both the persistent zone 820 and thenon-persistent zone 830.

With reference to group assignment 824, group assignment 824 has asignalling bitmap 825 that includes a resource availability bitmap (RAB)840, an assignment bitmap 841, a pairing or sets combination indexbitmap 842 and a resource permutation index bitmap 843. The RAB 840 has4 bits, one bit corresponding to each assigned resource to indicate itsavailability. The “1” value in bit location 2 indicates that theresource assignment is not available, while the “0” value in bitlocations 1, 3 and 4 indicates that the resource assignments areavailable. The assignment bitmap 841 has 6 bits, one bit for possibleassignment to each user. The “1” value in bit locations 1, 3, 5 and 6 ofassignment bitmap 841 indicate that users UE₁₂, UE₂₀, UE₄ and UE₂₄ areassigned a resource and the “0” value in bit locations 2 and 4 indicatethat users UE₃ and UE₄₆ are not assigned a resource. The pairing or setscombination index bitmap 842 has 4 bits. The resource permutation bitmap843 has 2 bits. Group assignment 821 has a signalling bitmap as well.

In group assignment 824 also indicated is a persistently assignedresource 826 (gray shaded portion of group assignment 824) that is inuse and as such is not available for assignment to other users. Thismay, for example, be the resource that is indicated to be unavailable inRAB 840. Similar persistent assignments are shown in group assignments821 and 827.

In the illustrated example a single resource block is used for bitmapsignalling in each partition.

In some embodiments, re-transmissions for unicast assignments arejointly signalled in a retransmission-specific partition within thenon-persistent zone 830. If there is no non-persistent zone in a givenframe, a partition in the persistent zone 820 may be used forre-transmissions. In some embodiments, re-transmissions for unicastassignments are separately signalled transmissions by unicast messages.

In some embodiments, persistent assignments are signalled by a unicastassignment message. This may occur, for example, once per talk spurt.

In some embodiments, in the persistent zone, the combination indexpartition does include persistent assignments. This means that for thepersistent zone, persistent assigned resources that are “in use” areremoved from the list of available resources. The combination indexindicates the partitioning of the available resources after thepersistently assigned “in use” resources have been removed.

FIG. 9 illustrates an implementation using a central RAB. In theillustrated example one or both of group and unicast resourceallocations may be included in the frame.

FIG. 9 illustrates at least part of a frame 900, having a combinationindex 910, an RAB 915, a persistent zone 920 that has at least someresources that are persistently assigned, and a non-persistent zone 930that has no persistently assigned resources. In the persistent zonethere are three partitions 921,924,927. Two of the partitions 921,924are group assignments and have signalling bitmaps 922,925, respectively,which may be of a type described in detail above. The third assignment927 is a unicast assignment and has a signalling bitmap 928.

The combination index 910 may be a similar resource allocation indexdescribed above in FIG. 8. The combination index 910 and the RAB 915 maytogether be referred to as a multicast control segment (MCCS).

With reference to group assignment 924, group assignment 924 has asignalling bitmap 925 that includes an assignment bitmap 940, a pairingor sets combination index bitmap 941 and a resource permutation indexbitmap 942. The assignment bitmap 940 has 6 bits, one bit for possibleassignment to each user. In the illustrated example, the assignmentbitmap 940 is similar to the assignment bitmap 841 in FIG. 8. Thepairing or sets combination index bitmap w41 has 4 bits. The resourcepermutation bitmap 942 has 2 bits. Group assignment 921 has a signallingbitmap as well.

In group assignment 924 also indicated is a persistently assignedresource 926 (gray shaded portion of group assignment 924) that is inuse and as such is not available for assignment to other users. Similarpersistent assignments are shown in group assignments 921 and 927.

The following is an example for UL collaborative MIMO in which aresource allocation signalling bitmap size is determined.

In order for hypothesis detection of a bitmap to operate, a bitmaplength (and in some cases its component fields) size can be: known to auser; determinable by the user; or determinable to a set ofpossibilities to the user. In some embodiments, as bitmap size may berelated to a number of resource assignments in a non-persistentpartition, bitmap size may be determined from knowing a number ofresource blocks in a partition and the fixed number of resource blocksper user assignment.

In some embodiments, the bitmap length is dependent on another parametersuch as a number of assignments, and hence the bitmap length can bedetermined by using this parameter. In some embodiments the parameterupon which the signalling length is dependent is determinable to a setof possibilities. In some embodiments the signalling message length isknown to a finite set of possibilities. When the parameter upon whichthe signalling length is dependent is determinable to a set ofpossibilities it may be possible to perform one or both of the followingactions to determine the length: use hypothesis detection to trydifferent possibilities; and use predefined rules to eliminate all butone possibility.

By way of example, in a particular implementation, a partition isspecified as having 7 resource blocks. If resource allocation signallinguses 1 resource block then there are 6 resource blocks left for dataassignment, and the bitmap length can be determined to be “A” bits. Ifthe resource allocation signalling uses 2 resource blocks then there are5 resource blocks left for data assignment and the bitmap size can bedetermined to be “B” bits. In the particular example, it is determinedthat 3 resource blocks cannot be used for signalling due toconfiguration parameters (i.e. maximum resources, possible MCS levels,etc.). Hypotheses detection may be used to try both possibilities (bitlength “A” and 1 resource block, and bit length “B” and 2 resourceblocks), or a known rule may be used to uniquely determine the bitlength.

An example of a known rule may be not using signalling assignments of 1resource block when the bit length is greater than “C”. Hence, if“A”>“C”, than the length is “B” and 2 resources are used, and “A”<“C”,only 1 resource is used for the signalling assignment.

In some embodiments, the resource partition size is assumed known. Ifthe group signalling uses resource partitions of the known size, theportion of partition used for data assignment may be assumed to bedeterminable given the methods described.

In some embodiments, the signalling may be superpositioned with traffic,and hence does not take bandwidth resources from the partition. Thedescription and examples herein refer to “partition size”, and it istaken that the size of partition for data or traffic, excludingresources for signalling, is either explicitly indicated or can bederived from the indicated partition size.

In some embodiments, the group bitmap's total length may be variable,but can be dynamically determined by the users in the group. The sizemay be: known by the users; determinable by the users; and/ordeterminable to a set of possibilities by the users.

In some embodiments, a user that has been assigned a group ID may try todecode the start of each partition with its group ID in an attempt tofind the group resource assignment for the user.

In some embodiments, a user that has been assigned a group ID may try todecode a known location, not necessarily the start of each partition,with its group ID in an attempt to find the group resource assignmentfor the user.

In some embodiments, group or unicast signalling is multiplexed withtraffic using several methods including: placing signalling at thebeginning of the partition; superpositioning of the signalling and data;reserving one or more resource blocks at the beginning of the partitionfor signalling.

In some embodiments, the length of the field may be related to theindicated partition size (either directly, derived from or through overprovisioning) for some range of sizes, and may be fixed for others. Insome embodiments, the interpretation of these fixed fields may bepredefined according to the number of assignments, possibly bysubdividing the assignments into smaller groups.

In general, field size will be fixed based on bitmap size (number ofusers). In general, a smaller bitmap can be used. In someimplementations, depending on the number of assignments, computationallogic can be used to derive pairs from the bitmap.

For example, for a bitmap size appropriate for 20 users with fixedpairing indication of 10 bits, if there are 10 or less indicatedassignments, the indication is the full combination index. If there are11 to 12 indicated assignments, the field has two 4-bit fields for eachset of 6 assignments, and therefore 2 bits are zero padded. If there are13 to 16 indicated assignments, the field has two 4-bit fields for eachset of 6 assignments, and a 2-bit field for up to the last 4assignments. If there are 17 to 20 assignments, the field has 5 2-bitfields for groups of 4 users each.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary table of the number of combinations andthe size of the associated combination bitmap used to indicate possiblepairings of users for 4, 6, 10, 16 and 20 assignments for the groupbitmap.

For supporting persistent assignments, be they first transmission orsubsequent transmissions, combination index signalling may provide anindication of what resources are in use. There are several possibilitiesfor providing such an indication.

In a first possibility, the indication may be that a given partition isfor persistent assignment. The given partition is largely fixed in size.The partition includes signalling to allocate resources that are notbeing used to other users, for example if a persistent resource istemporarily not needed by the user it is assigned to. The other usersmay be VoIP users or other types of users. This possibility limits thenumber of persistent assignments.

In a second possibility, persistent assignments are allowed to span thewhole resource space. Combination index partitions are calculatedincluding persistent assignment resources, so users can subtractassignments from their allocation.

In some embodiments, the indication of what resources are assignedpersistently to users, as well as if they are in use, occurs by using atleast one RAB per partition, each transmitted to target users of eachpartition. This is shown in the distributed RAB approach of FIG. 8. Suchan indication may apply to group and non-group partitions.

In some embodiments, the indication of what resources are assignedpersistently to users, as well as if the resources are in use, occurs byan indication of all persistent assignments across the entire resourceby using the resource availability bitmap, which is broadcast to allusers. This is shown in the central RAB approach of FIG. 9.

In some embodiments, persistent resources within a group assignment areassigned in a similar manner. For example each group assignment may havean exclusive persistent assignment/reassignment bitmap. In someembodiments, deassignment is optional, because if no packet issuccessfully received, a time-out may occur.

The following is an example of how persistent data assignments are madein a zone of a frame, the zone having three partitions. In the zone,user(s) in a first partition are assigned two resource blocks for data,user(s) in second partition are assigned three resource blocks for data,and user(s) in a third partition are assigned five resource blocks fordata.

In this example, one resource block is also reserved for signalling ineach partition in addition to the resource blocks assigned for data.

The first and second partitions each have one additional resource blockassigned persistently and in use. The third partition has two additionalresource blocks assigned persistently and in use.

Therefore, combining the resource blocks assigned for data, the resourceblocks assigned for signalling, and the resource blocks that arepersistently assigned, results in the first partition being assignedfour (4) resource blocks, the second partition being assigned five (5)resource blocks and the third partition being assigned eight (8)resource blocks. The combination index will be represented as, or willbe a function of, an index value {4, 5, 8}, which indicates the numberof resource blocks assigned to each respective partition.

In some embodiments, a permutation index may be used instead of acombination index. A permutation index is similar to a combinationindex, but every permutation of the resource assignments is represented,meaning that there may be significantly more representative indexvalues, and consequently a larger number of bits are needed to representall of the index values. However, if partitions are fairly large, or canbe changed slightly, the combination index is sufficient.

In some embodiments, by including persistent assignments in thecombination index a user does not need to know anything about persistentassignments in other partitions to determine its own allocationlocations.

Two techniques can be used in order to signal the persistentassignments. In a first technique, a bitmap is broadcast to users ofpartitions 1, 2 and 3, the bitmap having a bit length equal to 17 bits(4+5+8), in which each bit of the bitmap indicates a free or a usedresource. In a second technique, a bitmap is broadcast to user(s) ineach partition (improve power efficiency). With respect to the exampleabove, this would mean the first partition has a bitmap length equal to4 bits, the second partition has bitmap length equal to 5 bits and thethird partition has bitmap equal to length 8 bits. The two techniquesare essentially illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9.

In a particular example of persistent allocation for first transmissionsand non-persistent for re-transmissions, since all users in the grouphave a first transmission in a same frame, a group bitmap does not needto be sent for the respective first transmissions.

For retransmissions, the group bitmap may include some of the following,depending on the application: a resource availability bitmap; a userassignment bitmap; a partition-dependent length resource permutationindex; and a fixed length collaborative MIMO pairing index (on somehigher geometry UL VoIP bitmaps).

The group bitmap length changes with the number of partitions, which issignalled so that bitmap size is always known.

In addition, in some embodiments, as the group bitmap is scrambled witha group ID, the group bitmap can be sent at any time.

While reference is made above in many of the examples to apartition-type assignment structure in which each partition includespartition specific bitmap signalling, concepts and methods describedherein may be used with other types of signalling structures as well.

In some embodiments, placement of group signalling in specificpartitions, and/or resource allocation using resource permutation indexallows some frequency selective scheduling.

Real Time Services

For applications with traffic types having larger packets and forfrequency selective scheduling, the following techniques may be usedeither alone or in combination:

User pair or user sets combination index bitmap and/or permutation indexbitmap and/or unicast signalling for these traffic types; explicitlydefine re-transmission resources in order to be frequency selective;allow for any MIMO features supported in regular unicast messages; andoptionally, use superposition of messages starting with the “first”resource of each traffic channel for that assignment.

For example, this may be implemented by a user reading a broadcast indexmessage and then attempting to decode an assignment message overlaid onthe traffic. Any interference cancellation techniques used fortransmission should be reliable, as the assignment message and trafficare intended the same user.

In some embodiments, superposition of the signalling and traffic forthat assignment can be used. The region of superposition can be a knownregion of the traffic channel resource, or possibly the entire resource.

An example of superposition of traffic and signalling involving resourcepartitions is as follows: a user reads and/or derives resourcepartition(s) from broadcast message or otherwise; and the user attemptsto decode the message, possibly using its user ID, which may be a MACID,and then attempts to decode an assignment message overlaid on thetraffic.

In some embodiments, interference cancellation can be used to remove thecorrectly decoded signalling from the traffic channel.

For applications with, but not limited to, distributed resourceassignments and/or smaller packet allocations, the following techniquesmay be used either alone or in combination: group assignment bitmapstructure included within resource partitions, possibly signalled by acombination/permutation index; dynamic detection of group signalling byhypothesis detection; using assigned group ID to attempt to decode eachpossible occurrence of group signalling in a frame.

Indication of Order of Allocation Dimensions

Allocation of resources may occur in one dimension first, and than oneor more other dimensions. For example, a first dimension and a seconddimension may be time and logical channels, respectively, withallocation proceeding in the time dimension first. Resources may beallocated in the time dimension first, by adding logical channels inconsecutive OFDM symbols starting with the first resource in the firstOFDM symbol. Once one resource in each OFDM symbols has been allocated,the next resource allocated is the second resource in the first timeresource. This process can be followed for one large allocation, or morethan one separate allocations.

In some cases, it is advantageous to define one order of allocation as adefault direction of first allocation, but allow for indication that theorder of allocation may be reserved. For example, allocation may beperformed in the logical frequency channel dimension first, followed byallocation in the time dimension. The order can be reversed by signalinga reversal indicator, so that the allocation order can follow the timedimension first and then frequency dimension.

The reversal indicator can be a bitfield to indicate the order ofallocating the dimensions of the transmission resource. If there areonly two options, then a 1-bit indicator can be used.

This allocation order can be used in each partition of a zone or frame,or alternatively, different within each partition.

Examples of dimensions include logical channels, physical channels, OFDMsymbols, slots, virtual channel, and spatial channels.

While OFDM is specifically referred to, it is to be understood that thedescribed method of allocation could apply to other transmissionformats.

Multiplexing of Multiple Sizes of Allocations

In some embodiments, allocations occupy resources that are contiguous,or, occupy resources that are consecutive in at least one dimension. Forexample, the allocations may be consecutive in order of logical channelsor physical channels.

In some of these cases, allocations may be limited to one or moreallocation sizes. Use of different allocation sizes results in resourcesbeing grouped into two or more groups, each group having a distinctallocation size. These groups of differing allocation sizes may bemultiplexed in the same resource space. The groups may be multiplexed inat least one of the following ways: 1) for two groups, starting eachgroup from opposite ends of the resource space; 2) each group is givenboundaries of allocation space; 3) each group is assigned starting (orending) points for allocation space; 4) allocation of each group in adifferent subzone; and 5) allocation of each group in a differentinterlace.

In some embodiments, these boundaries, or staring points, may be changedby signalling an indication of where a resource group should exist orstart.

In some embodiments, these boundaries, or staring points, may be changedby signalling a re-allocation of at least one allocation of a group inorder to shift the boundary or staring point. Changing the boundaries ofsome groups may result in boundaries of other group being changed.

In some cases, the groups to be multiplexed differ in one or more ways.For example, in the case of two or more group types being multiplexed:one or more groups may have fixed allocation sizes while one or moreothers are variable per allocation; one or more groups may use powercontrol adaptation while one or more others may have a fixed powersettings; one or more groups may use control signalling while one ormore others may have data traffic; one or more groups may use one formof channelization (e.g. distributed in frequency) while one or moreothers may use another (e.g. localized in frequency).

Timing of Re-Occurring Allocation

A re-occurring or persistent assignment may be defined for a givenallocation. In some cases, the allocation can be periodic. The locationof the resources may also be constant, or known, for each occurrence.

In a particular example related to VoIP, in the uplink, a mobile mayrequest allocation when a first VoIP packet is created after a silenceframe, call start, etc. After a request for resources is received, apersistent reoccurring allocation may be granted. This is especiallyuseful in VoIP applications. As VoIP UL packets are createdperiodically, the base station (BS) can derive a resource assignment ina reoccurring frame that will results in the shortest idle time of apacket at the UL, given constraints of resource availability andequipment capability. The reoccurring resource will begin for the NthVoIP packet generated in this set, possibly as early as the 2^(nd)packet.

In some embodiments, the first packet that may have triggered theoriginal request can be encoded with a second packet and transmitted onthe reoccurring resource. This is illustrated in FIG. 11. One way toaccommodate the combined first and second packets is to double theresource size for the combined first and second packet transmission.Another way to accommodate the combined first and second packets is toadjust the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to allow use of the sameresource size.

In some embodiments, the first packet that may have triggered theoriginal request can be scheduled separately from the re-occurringresource allocation. This is illustrated in FIG. 12. In some embodimentsthis is performed dynamically. In such a case, the request would causetwo allocations. A first reoccurring resource to be allocated of thesecond packet and also a separate allocation for the first packet. Thesetwo allocations do not need to be in the same frame.

In some embodiments, the reoccurring resource may be used for only firstre-transmissions of each packet.

While the above examples refer specifically to UL, the methods describedmay apply to a DL as well. In a DL implementation, the arrival of afirst packet from a network triggers the “request for allocation”.

In some embodiments, the procedure for transmission of the first packetcan be known at both the base station and the mobile station. In otherembodiments, it can be signaled within the re-occurring resourceallocation or dynamically scheduled in the first transmission.

In some implementations, a bit field, equal to or greater than 1-bit,may be sufficient to indicate which option, combined first and secondpackets or separate first and second packets, will be used to transmitthe first packet.

Supplemental Transmission Information Fields

In some continuous and/or real applications, users are singled via agroup bitmap. Each location in the bitmap is assigned to a user. Thevalue of the bit at the location for each user indicates whether theuser is being assigned resources (‘1’), or not being assigned resources(‘0’). A first indicated assignment is assigned to a first availableresource(s), the second indicated assignment is assigned to the secondavailable resource(s) and so on. The available resources used for thegroup assignment may be indicated by a resource partition, or by someother form of assignment. In some embodiments, a resource availabilitybitmap may also be employed to indicate which specific resources areavailable.

In some implementations, users are divided into groups based on geometryor some other metric, with each group signaled by a bitmap, as descriedin some detail above.

In some implementations, it may be desirable to add additional fields tothe bitmap such as the user pairing or user sets combination index andresource allocation permutation index (each of which are discussed abovein detail). Other additional bitmaps may include a bitmap that indicatesif each assignment is an original sub-packet or a re-transmissionsub-packet and an additional bitmap that indicates the MIMO mode of eachassignment, each of which are described in further detail inPCT/CA2006/001738, which is herein incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

In some embodiments, bitfields that modify, and/or provide additionalinformation about each indicated assignment of the resource allocationbitmap are added to the resource allocation bitmap. A user, for examplea mobile station, can use such information to derive resourceallocations assigned to them, and as a result potentially reducedecoding hypotheses that may be used to decoding a location of theallocation. The bitfields are appended to the resource allocationbitmap, and the bitfields and resource allocation bitmap are encodedtogether.

FIG. 13A illustrates an example bitmap 1300 without supplementaltransmission information bitfields. The bitmap 1300 has a length of 18bits, which are use to indicated whether users associated with the bitsare assigned a resource or not, and a 7 bit CRC. The “1”s in the bitmap1300 indicate first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth assignmentsto the second, sixth, eleventh, twelfth, fifteenth and eighteenth users,respectively.

FIG. 13B illustrates an example bitmap 1350 with supplementaltransmission information bitfields 1360. As in FIG. 13A, the bitmap hasa length of 18 bits and a 7 bit CRC, along with the 6 bits ofsupplemental transmission information.

The supplemental transmission information bitfield is configurable foreach group bitmap. The bitfield may operate in one of multiple “1 bit”bitfield modes or one of multiple “2 bit” bitfield modes that will bedescribed in further detail below.

Several examples of “1 bit” bitfield modes, each having two states (i.e.“1” and “0”), are:

New Packet Toggle (NPT)

The NPT mode is a multi-state toggle. This mode prevents ambiguity oftransmission to a mobile station in case of an ACK/NAK error, as the bitchanges values each time a new packet is started.

New HARQ Packet Start Indicator

In this bitfield, a first state indicates a new packet HARQ transmissionand a second state indicates a HARQ re-transmission.

Multiple Packets (MP)

This bitfield allows a base station to specify that two packets arebeing transmitted to a mobile station and also indicates to other mobilestations of the group that this assignment will use twice the resources.

In some situations, the indication of two packets being transmitted doesnot imply that the packets have their first HARQ transmission at thesame time. In some implementations, the default option may be to specifythat two packets are never started at the same time.

Subpacket HARQ Transmission Index (2 State)

This bitfield indicates a subpacket ID for HARQ transmissions for up totwo states. If more than two subpackets exist, then it is possible tocycle through the two states multiple time as necessary to accommodatean existing number of subpackets. This may be useful in cases ofasynchronous incremental redundancy (IR) HARQ transmissions.

Packet Start Frame (PSF) within Superframe

This bitfield indicates two starting points, one for each packet, peruser, per frame. This bitfield may indicate the frames within thesuperframe on which a first HARQ packet transmission occurs. Thisindication simplifies hypothesis detection in the presence of controlsignaling errors. While the above description refers to frames andsuperframes, it is to be understood that, more generally, thesestructures are transmission resources of a given duration for a givencommunications standard.

Packet Information Field States

This bitfield may be used, for example, to indicate the use of twodifferent packet sizes, but the resource allocation size is intended tostay the same. For example, each of two states signal different packetsizes, and a respective MCS that will enable maintaining a fixedresource allocation size.

Several examples of a 2 bit bitfield mode, each having four states (i.e.“00”, “01”, “10” and “11”) are:

Subpacket HARQ Transmission Index Subpacket ID (SPID)

The mode indicates the subpacket ID for HARQ transmissions for up tofour states. If more than four subpackets exist, then it is possible tocycle through the two states multiple time as necessary to accommodatean existing number of subpackets. This is useful in cases ofasynchronous IR HARQ transmissions

Modified HARQ Sub-Packet Identification

Of the four states, a first state indicates a new packet transmission.Other states correspond to subsequently transmitted sub-packets. If thenumber of re-transmissions is greater than 3, states 2-4 are cycledthrough again. An example of four states, generalized for a largernumber of transmissions is as follows:

the first state is for a first sub-packet transmission;

the second state is for a 2+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2,3 . . . );

the third state is for a 3+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2, 3. . . ); and

the fourth state is for a 4+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2,3 . . . ).

In synchronous HARQ, this bitfield may be used to implicitly indicatethe start of frames, or to limit the start to at least to a small set ofpossibilities, given the maximum number of HARQ transmissions.

New Packet Toggle (NPT) (Multi-State Toggle)

This mode prevents ambiguity of transmission to mobile stations in caseof ACK/NAK error as the bitfield changes values each time a new packetis started.

Packet Start Frame (PSF) within Superframe

This bitfield indicates up to four start points, one for each packet,per user, per frame to be signaled uniquely. This bitfield may indicatethe frames within the superframe on which a first HARQ packettransmission occurs. This indication simplifies hypothesis detection inthe presence of control signalling errors. While the above descriptionrefers to frames and superframes, it is to be understood that, moregenerally, these structures are transmission resources of a givenduration for a given communications standard.

4-Packet (Multiple Packets)

This bitfield allows the base station to specify that four packets arebeing transmitted to a mobile station and also indicates to other mobilestations of the group that this assignment will uses twice theresources.

1-Bit Mode Selector, 1 Bit Mode

In this bitfield, a first bit can be used to select between two modes,while a second bit indicates which of the two states the mode is in. Themode that is not indicated is assumed to be in a default mode.

Hybrid Modes

Toggle (Two State) Combined with MP Indicator

For this mode, the bitfield refers to one packet, or possibly twopackets. A “first packet” is the packet with the larger number ofre-transmissions, which in the case of asynchronous HARQ indicated thatthe first packet started initial transmission at an earlier time. Thefour states include:

a first state is used to indicate a first sub-packet transmission for afirst packet;

a second state is used to indicate re-transmission of sub-packettransmission for the first packet;

a third state is used to indicate a first sub-packet transmission for asecond packet when the first packet is being re-transmitted. There is animplied restriction for this state that two packets do not start a firstHARQ transmission at the same time to the same user;

a fourth state is used to indicate retransmission of sub-packettransmission for the second packet when the first packet is beingre-transmitted.

Modified HARQ Subpacket ID (Three State) (Default One Packet)+2 PacketIndictor (One State)

The first state is for a first sub-packet transmission. The second stateis for a 2+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2, 3 . . . ). Thethird state is for a 3+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2, 3 . .. ). The fourth state is for 2-packets, and it is implied thattransmission of a “first” packet was started earlier.

Modified HARQ Subpacket ID (Three States) (Default is One Packet)+Startof Frame Bit (Applies to Latest Packet)

The first state is for a first sub-packet transmission. The second stateis for a 2+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2, 3 . . . ). Thethird state is for a 3+3n^(th) sub-packet transmission (n=0, 1, 2, 3 . .. ). The fourth state is for two packets, and it is implied thattransmission of a first packet of the two packets was started prior to asecond packet of the two packets.

Start of Frame Bit (Applies to Latest Packet)/2 Packet Indictor

For this mode, the bitfield refers to refers to one packet, or possiblytwo packets. When two packets are indicated, the first packet of the twopackets is the packet for which transmission was started earlier and asa result has a larger number of re-transmissions. Start frames A and Bare frames (or possibly sets of frames) within the set of possible startframes. As an example, for VoIP, the interval between new packets is 20ms, but a start frame may occur at any frame within the 20 ms interval.The four states include:

a first state indicates a first packet starts at start frame A;

a second state indicates a first packet starts at start frame B;

a third state indicates a second packet starts at start frame A and thefirst packet in being retransmitted; and

a fourth state indicates a second packet starts at start frame B and thefirst packet is being retransmitted.

New HARQ Packet Start Indicator and Packet Start Frame (PSF) withinSuperframe (3 States)The four states include:

a first state is a new packet indication state that indicates a newpacket, in which the PSF is set to a default of a current frame;

a second state is a new packet indication state that indicates a HARQre-transmission, in which the PSF is set to frame A;

a third state is a new packet indication state that indicates a HARQre-transmission, in which the PSF is set to frame B; and

a fourth state is a new packet indication state that indicates a HARQre-transmission, in which the PSF is set to frame C.

New HARQ packet Start Indicator and Packet Start Frame (PSF) withinSuperframe (2 States)+2 State New Packet Information

In this hybrid bitfield, hypothesis detection of the type of packet isremoved, provided the user receives the initial transmission bitmapcorrectly. The four states include:

a first state is a new packet indication state that indicates a newpacket, in which the PSF is set to a default of a current frame. In someembodiments the first state may also indicate some type of packetinformation, such as, for example, that the packet is a full-ratepacket;

a second state is a new packet indication state that indicates a HARQre-transmission, in which the PSF is set to frame A;

a third state is a new packet indication state that indicates a HARQre-transmission, in which the PSF is set to frame B;

a fourth state is a new packet indication stated that indicates a newpacket, in which the PSF set to a default of a current frame. In someembodiments the fourth state may also indicate some type of packetinformation that is different than the type of packet informationindicated in the first state. For example, the type of packetinformation in the fourth state may be that the packet is a silenceframe indicator (SID) packet.

The above-described bitfields for only “1 bit” and “2 bit” sizes aremerely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention. Extensions to N-bit field sizes with 2^(N) statescontemplated.

In some embodiments, bitfields can be configured as indicated above atthe time a user is added to a user group. For example, in an assignmentmessage used to assign a user to a group, there may appear the followingfields:

TABLE 5 Field name Field sizeSupplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode_size 1 bit Supplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode 2 bits

The fields can be configured in the following way. The“Supplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode_size” field mayindicate that the bitfield is either “1 bit” or “2 bits”, i.e. a one bitbitfield size allows a “0” for a “1 bit” bitfield and a “1” for a “2bit” bitfield. The bitfield size will determine the possible modes.

With respect to the “Supplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode”field, if the “Supplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode_size” isequal a “1 bit” bitfield, an example of the bitfields corresponding toeach field mode are:

TABLE 6 Field mode indicated Corresponding Mode 00 New Packet Toggle(NPT) 01 Packet Start Frame (PSF) Within Superframe 10 Multiple Packets(MP) 11 New HARQ Packet Start Indicator [Index?]

If “Supplemental_Transmission_Information_Field_mode_size” is equal to“2 bits”, an example of the bitfields corresponding to each field modeare:

TABLE 7 Field mode indicated Corresponding Mode 00 Subpacket HARQTransmission Index SPID 01 Packet Start Frame (PSF) Within Superframe 10Toggle (two state) Combined with MP Indicator 11 New HARQ Packet StartIndicator and Packet Start Frame (PSF) Within Superframe (2 state) + 2State New Packet Information

More generally, a method, according to some embodiments, includessignalling a group of users with a group bitmap, wherein the groupbitmap includes at least one bitfield that provides additionalinformation about the one or more resource blocks allocated to the atleast one user of the respective partition. The at least one bitfieldincludes a first portion of the at least one bitfield that indicates anumber of bits N that are used to define further transmissioninformation; and a second portion of the at least one bitfield thatindicates one of a plurality of transmission information modes that has2^(N) states.

In some embodiments, decoding of the bitmap is facilitated by havingsome information of the size of the bitmap. Using a similar concept forthe fields described above, the bitmap length with this field can beeither: known; determinable; and determinable to a set of possibilities.

In some embodiments, the mobile station knows the assignment bitmap andCRC lengths from the message assigning it to a group. The SupplementalTransmission Information bitfield itself can be determined in severalways.

If the number of resources assigned to the group (not including bitmapsignaling) is known and the number of resources per assignment areknown, then the number of indicated assignments can be determined priorto bitmap decoding. Hence with knowledge of the assignment bitmap andCRC length (plus any other fields), the total bitmap length can beknown.

In a specific example, a combination index indicates that the partitionsize for a group assignment is five resource blocks. Furthermore, it isknown through signalling, or otherwise, that the assignment bitmap has10 bits, which represents 10 possible user assignments, the CRC is 7bits, the Supplemental Transmission Information Field is 1 bit and eachassignment is 1 resource block. Based on this information, it can bedetermined that there are five indicated assignments (one for eachresource block) and that the bitmap size is 22 bits in length. Thislength is determined from the 10 bits of the assignment bitmap, 5additional Supplemental Transmission Information Field bits, one bit foreach of the five indicated assignments and the 7 CRC bits.

Additionally, a Supplemental Transmission Information bitfield canindicate a different number of resources per assignment. The bitfieldmay then be padded to fit a desired number of bits. This is a defaultassumption of both a transmitter and user. This is the case if a bitmapis configured to use a multi-packet bitfield as indicated in thedescription above.

In another specific example, a combination index indicates that thepartition size for a group assignment is five resource blocks.Furthermore, it is known through signalling, or otherwise, that theassignment bitmap has 10 bits, which represent 10 possible userassignments, the CRC is 7 bits, the Supplemental TransmissionInformation Field is 1 bit, and the mode is set to MP with 2-states(i.e. 1 or 2 packets). Each assignment is 1 or 2 resources.

Based on this information, it can be determined that there are up tofive indicated assignments, (one for each resource block) and that thebitmap size is 22 bits in length. This length is determined from the 10bits of the assignment bitmap, 5 Supplemental Transmission Informationbits, one bit for each of the five indicated assignments and the 7 CRCbits.

The amount of resource being assigned can also follow several options,for example as described above.

The number of resources can be specified within a resource partitionincluding data. In some embodiments, for UL allocations, it is useful tohave all assignment messages in one partition.

In some cases, if the bitmap size in bits is known, and the resourcesize for the bitmap is known, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) canbe selected from one or more MCS available to enable a desired amount oftransmission resource.

A resource allocation bitmap can appear at the beginning of a partition.In this manner, some resources of the partition are used for assignmentsignaling. As the size of the resource allocation bitmap can be derivedas described above, the user is able to determine left over resource fordata. The portion of the partition used for assignment signaling doesnot necessarily have to be an integer number of resources.

In another specific example, a resource block is 96 modulation symbols.An assignment message is determined to be 35 modulation symbols, but theuser would still consider five resource blocks to be used for dataassignment. However, the first resource block would only contain 61modulation symbols of the 96 modulation symbols for data as theassignment message is the remaining 35 modulation symbols.

It is also a useful approach to consider a limit on the size of a bitmapbefore a resource block is assigned to it. In addition, a different MCSmay be assumed once an entire resource block is assigned to it. The MCSmay be the MCS which provides the closest match to the appropriatenumber of integer resources blocks, without exceeding the number ofresource blocks.

In another specific example, a resource block is 96 modulation symbols,and there is a limit of 25 modulation symbols for an assignment messagesize before an entire resource block is assigned to it. In addition, theavailable MCS are: QPSK rate ½, QPSK rate ¼, and QPSK, rate ¼ with 4repetitions.

If the resource allocation bitmap is 22 bits in length, the MCS will beselected as QPSK rate ½. As QPSK uses 2 bits per modulation symbol forfull fate, QPSK rate ½ needs to transmit twice the number of bits totransmit the same modulation symbols. Therefore, the QPSK rate ½ resultsin 22 modulation symbols. The resource allocation bitmap will beassigned the first 22 modulation symbols of the first allocation.Partition size will be five resource blocks for signaling and data.

If the resource allocation bitmap is 32 bits in length, none of theavailable MCS will allow a transmission size of less then 25 modulationsymbols, hence a whole resource block of 96 modulation symbols will beallocated for signaling. The MCS that gives the closest fit withoutexceeding the allocation is QPSK rate ⅓ (48 bits). The partition sizewill be 6 resource blocks for signaling and data, 5 for data and one forsignalling.

If the resource allocation bitmap is 98 bits in length, none of theavailable MCS will allow a transmission size of less then 25 modulationsymbols, hence a whole resource block of 96 modulation symbols will beallocated for signaling.

Also, none of the available MCS will allow a transmission size of lessthen 96 modulation symbols and hence a portion of the second resourceblock will be assigned to the assignment message. The MCS that will beselected is QPSK rate (98 modulation symbols) and the resourceallocation bitmap will be assigned the first resource block and thefirst 2 modulation symbols of the second allocation. Partition size willbe 6 resource blocks for signaling and data, 5 for data and one forsignalling.

A bitmap transmission that contains other fields, without or withoutpresence of the Supplemental Transmission information field, can betransmitted in the same manner.

A group can be signalled by a mobile station (MS) assignment (orallocation) index (MSAI). In some embodiments, the MSAI replaces theresource availability bitmap.

A group is a set of users. In some embodiments a user can belong to morethan one group.

The users of the groups are ordered. In this manner, a user'sassignments can be specified by a ‘1’ for an active assignment in theappropriate position of a given ordered assignment for the group.

The MSAI is an index with a one-to-one relation to a set of ordered userassignments (active and inactive) given knowledge of the total number ofactive assignments and number of total users in the group (active orinactive). A table can be created of possible MSAI's and thecorresponding ordered user assignments. In some cases, this table can bereplaced by a process or function to derive the ordered assignments fromthe MSAI given appropriate parameters.

The MSAI can be used to signal resource assignments on the UL and DL,and can be used for one or more (possibly all) transmission of a packet.

Ordered assignments indicate which users are active (‘1’) and whichusers are inactive (‘0’). A user can be assigned a pre-determinedposition in an ordered group. This assignment may be indicated when theuser is assigned to the group.

For example, for a group of four users, an ordered assignment of “1010”means the second and fourth users are inactive, and the first and thirdusers of the group are active.

In some embodiments, to create a MSAI for a given number of users pergroup and a given number of active assignments, a table is formed inwhich each entry in the table contains a MSAI number, a MS assignmentindex bitfield value, and a corresponding ordered assignment (forexample, see the headers of Table 8 below).

During a given set of user assignments (active and inactive) for agroup, a transmitter sends the MSAI entry corresponding to the orderedassignments from the table that define the group size and number ofactive assignments.

The receiver (MS, group of MS, etc.) may know or determine the number ofuser in the group, and the number of active assignments in order todetermine the appropriate table to use.

In some case, users who are signalled in the group will know the numberof users in the group.

In some cases, the number of active assignments is signalled, or can bederived from other parameters such as number of resource assigned to agroup and the number of resource per group assignment.

The receiver can than determine the ordered assignments given the MSAIusing the appropriate table (or function and parameters)

If the receiver is assigned a position (ordered location) in the group,it can observe whether it has been given an active assignment (assignedresources), or set to inactive assignments (not assigned resources) bychecking its position in the ordered assignment.

The bits needed to signal active and inactive assignments to users canbe reduced compared to for instance using an RAB described above, bysending an MS assignment index. The index uses fewer bits as it assumesknowledge of the number of active assignments for group.

Examples of MSAIs follow in the form of tables for two, three and fourusers in a group (active and inactive assignments), with 2 activeassignments for each case. In the examples, the number of resources peruser assignment is 1.

Other tables, or even formulas or relationships, are possible. All thatis required is that from the index, it is possible to drive the set ofassignments for a group of users.

In the following tables, the “Ordered Assignments” column is equivalentthe group assignment bitmap.

Table 8 provides MSAI for two users per group, 2 active assignments. Forthis case, there is only one ordered assignment that represents thiscondition. Therefore, the MSAI indication is a single bit. As only asingle state of the single bit is needed to express this condition, theother state can be used for indication of another feature.

TABLE 8 Two users per group, 2 active assignments MSA Index MSAI fieldOrdered Assignments number (1 bit) (RAB) 00 01 10 0 0 11 1 1 Reservedfield

Table 9 provides MSAI for three users per group, 2 active assignments.For this case, there are three ordered assignments that represent thiscondition. Therefore, the MSAI indication is only two bits to representall three cases. The fourth value of the field can be used forindication of another feature or case (reserved).

TABLE 9 Three users per group, 2 active assignments MSA Index OrderedAssignments number MSAI field (RAB) 000 001 010 0 00 011 100 1 01 101 210 110 111 3 11 Reserved

Table 10 provides MSAI for four users per group, 2 active assignments.For this case, there are six ordered assignments that represent thiscondition. Therefore, the MSAI indication is only three bits torepresent the six cases. The seventh and eighth values of the field canbe used for indication of other features or cases (reserved 1 and 2).

TABLE 10 4 users per group, 2 active assignments MSA Index OrderedAssignments number MSAI field (RAB) 0000 0001 0010 0 000 0011 0100 1 0010101 2 010 0110 0111 1000 3 011 1001 4 100 1010 1011 5 101 1100 11011110 1111 6 110 Reserved 1 7 111 Reserved 2

Table 11 provides MSAI for four users per group, 1 active assignment.For this case, there are four ordered assignments that represent thiscondition. Therefore, the MSAI indication is only two bits to representthe four cases.

TABLE 11 Four users per group, 1 active assignment MSA Index OrderAssignments number MSAI field (conventional bitmap) 0000 0 00 0001 1 010010 0011 2 10 0100 0101 0110 0111 3 11 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 11011110 1111

In order to find a correct table to decode the bitfield, the MS mustknow or be able to determine, or set a bound on: a number of users inthe group; a number of active assignments.

If the MS can determine the correct table to use, it will also more thelength in bits of the MSAI field. Knowledge of the length of the MSAIfield will assist the mobile in detection and decoding of the groupassignment message.

In some embodiments, the number of active assignments (defined as ‘A’)is signalled.

In other embodiments, the number of assigned resources to the group issignalled (define as ‘R’), and the number of active assignments can bederived from this value.

If the number of assigned resources (‘R’) is known, the number of activeassignments (‘A’) is derived by dividing the number of assignedresources by the number of resource per user active assignment (definedby ‘U’). This is expressed as: A=R/U.

The following is a particular example of an MS using a number of groupresources to derive a number of assignments and an MSAI table.

A group of four users is assigned 2 resources. The number of resourcesper user assignment is 1. The first and fourth users of the group areactive (assigned resources). This would result in an RAB value ‘1001’.

At the transmitter:

The ordered assignments bitfield “1001” is located in a lookup table forfour users per group, 2 active assignments (Table 10). This valuecorresponds to MSA Index 3, and corresponds to MSAI bitfield “011”. AMSAI of “011” (3 bits) is sent.

At the receiver:

The mobile station knows that the group is assigned 2 resources, andthere is 1 resource per user assignment. Hence, there are two userassignments. The size of the group is already known by the user, and inthis case it is four. The mobile station therefore uses a table for fourusers, 2 active assignments (Table 10), and determines that the fieldlength is 3 bits.

Upon decoding, the MSAI field of “011” is determined, and mobile stationdetermines the ordered assignments bitmap of “1001”. The mobile stationis then able to determine its assignment based on its assigned positionin the group.

The MSAI bitfield can be used to efficiently signal some or alltransmissions of a packet transmission.

In some embodiments, the MSAI bitfield can signal HARQ re-transmissionsfor a group of users, where the group of users has a persistent assignedfirst HARQ transmission opportunity.

In some embodiments, the details of this are as follows. As a firsttransmission is persistently assigned, signalling is not needed for thistransmission. A resource availability bitmap may be used to indicate toother users/groups which resources are “in use”. For re-transmissions,the users who have been allocated resources for a HARQ re-transmissionof packet are indicated by the MSAI. As the number of user in a groupwho require re-transmission may be small in some cases, there ispotential savings in overhead in comparison to signalling the orderedbitmap of assignments explicitly.

It may be advantageous to configure the group of users such that each ofusers of the group have their first transmission opportunity in the samesub-frame (or frame, or scheduling event).

In a particular example, for a group of four users, all four users areallocated as predefined or persistent resources for their first HARQtransmission.

At a specific scheduling interval, all four users have a first HARQpacket transmission which is sent on persistent resources. The group isnot signalling is this scheduling interval.

At a later time the group is scheduled for a first re-transmissionopportunity. A packet for user 2 has need of a second transmission,whereas packets for user 1, 3, and 4 have been received successfully anddo not require re-transmission. The ordered assignments can be expressedas ‘0100’, and an appropriate MSAI can be sent to indicate theassignments. Using the example Table 11, the MSAI bitfield ‘10’ can besent to represent the active/inactive assignments for the users of thegroup. This process can be repeated for further re-transmissions.

UL Resource Partition Bitfield

In some embodiments, when allocating UL resources, a bitfield specifyinga UL partition number for the assignment is appended to the resourceassignment group bitmap. While part of the resource assignment bitmapdefines resources to be used for UL, the UL partition number defines thespecific resources for a given user.

In some embodiments, the index is used to link a resource assignmentmessage to a particular resource. Resource assignment messages areappended by a bit field specifying the resource for assignment.

In the case of resource partitions, the partition number for theassignment can be specified in the bitfield. Multiple assignments canpoint to the same resources or partition. For UL, this facilitatescollaborative spatial multiplexing (CSM), for example virtual MIMO, asmultiple user are assigned to the same resource.

However, a similar premise can be used for DL as well, for example formulti-user MIMO.

A bitfield specifying a partition number can be appended to a unicastmessage (intended for a single user) or a group assignment message.

In some implementations, a group assignment message, such as a groupbitmap, which can be used to signal VoIP allocations, can be appendedwith a bitfield indicating the partition number to where the group hasbeen assigned resources.

As described, multiple group bitmaps can indicate the same partition sothat multiple group assignments are assigned to the same set ofresources. For example, multiple bitmaps can be assigned to the samepartition. Multiple groups can be assigned to the same partition tosupport collaborative spatial multiplexing (CSM).

In some cases when multiple groups bitmaps or unicast assignments areassigned to the same partition, the assignments may be of differentsizes. In such case, if the size of the assignment is known to bedifferent from the partition size, and the mobile can observe that theassignment size is greater than the partition size, the assignment thathas indicated assigned resources greater than the partition size will“wrap around” after the end of the partition.

Mobile stations can derive a total number of assigned resources to agroup from a resource allocation bitmap, and compare this value with anindicated resource partition size.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of a time-frequency resource 1800 that isused for collaborative spatial multiplexing (CSM), having two layers1803,1804, one for each group of users. A first group has six assignedresources and a second group has ten assigned resources. A partitionsize is set to be eight assignments. The first group is assigned lessallocated resources than the partition size starting from a firstassigned resource 1810 for that layer 1803. The second group is assignedmore allocated resources than the partition size starting from a firstassigned resource 1820 for that layer 1804. Once the “last” resource1830 is reached in that layer 1804, the next assignment “wraps around”to be on the last resource 1840 of layer 1803, followed by the secondlast resource 1850 in layer 1803 as those resources are unused by thefirst group in layer 1803.

In some embodiments, such a process may allow efficient packing ofdifferent sized group assignments.

In addition, a users ordering index can also be used to allocate usersin a specific order. The users ordering index is a special case of userset combination index, with user set size equal to 1. For a number ofindicated assignments, a table can be created of possible ordering ofusers. For example, Table 4 above showing ordering of 3 indicatedassignments and corresponding table of indices.

User set ordering index may also be used to “shuffle” the assignments ofone or more group bitmaps to allow further control over which users aregrouped together for optimization.

In some embodiments, the user ordering index can be appended to highgeometry bitmap to minimize overhead.

Some embodiments of the invention include a method for use with atime-frequency transmission resource comprising at least one subzone,each subzone comprising at least one partition, each partition having atleast one resource block, each resource block having a plurality oftransmission symbols on a plurality of sub-carriers, wherein one or moreresource blocks are allocated to each of at least one user in arespective partition. For each partition, signalling is performed to agroup of users using a group bitmap, wherein the group bitmap includesat least one bitfield that provides additional information about the oneor more resource blocks allocated to the at least one user of therespective partition.

In some embodiments, the at least one bitfield may include one or moreof, but not limited to; the resource permutation index, user pairing oruser sets combination index, supplemental transmission information,mobile station assignment index, UL resource partition index and userset ordering index. In some embodiments the one or more bitfields can beencoded with CRC and sent together as one message.

Description of Example Components of a Relay System

A high level overview of the mobile terminals 16 and base stations 14upon which aspects of the present invention are implemented is providedprior to delving into the structural and functional details of thepreferred embodiments. With reference to FIG. 14, a base station 14 isillustrated. The base station 14 generally includes a control system 20,a baseband processor 22, transmit circuitry 24, receive circuitry 26,multiple antennas 28, and a network interface 30. The receive circuitry26 receives radio frequency signals bearing information from one or moreremote transmitters provided by mobile terminals 16 (illustrated in FIG.1). A low noise amplifier and a filter (not shown) may co-operate toamplify and remove broadband interference from the signal forprocessing. Downconversion and digitization circuitry (not shown) willthen downconvert the filtered, received signal to an intermediate orbaseband frequency signal, which is then digitized into one or moredigital streams.

The baseband processor 22 processes the digitized received signal toextract the information or data bits conveyed in the received signal.This processing typically comprises demodulation, decoding, and errorcorrection operations. As such, the baseband processor 22 is generallyimplemented in one or more digital signal processors (DSPs) orapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The receivedinformation is then sent across a wireless network via the networkinterface 30 or transmitted to another mobile terminal 16 serviced bythe base station 14.

On the transmit side, the baseband processor 22 receives digitized data,which may represent voice, data, or control information, from thenetwork interface 30 under the control of control system 20, and encodesthe data for transmission. The encoded data is output to the transmitcircuitry 24, where it is modulated by a carrier signal having a desiredtransmit frequency or frequencies. A power amplifier (not shown) willamplify the modulated carrier signal to a level appropriate fortransmission, and deliver the modulated carrier signal to the antennas28 through a matching network (not shown). Various modulation andprocessing techniques available to those skilled in the art are used forsignal transmission between the base station and the mobile terminal.

With reference to FIG. 15, a mobile terminal 16 configured according toone embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Similarly to thebase station 14, the mobile terminal 16 will include a control system32, a baseband processor 34, transmit circuitry 36, receive circuitry38, multiple antennas 40, and user interface circuitry 42. The receivecircuitry 38 receives radio frequency signals bearing information fromone or more base stations 14. A low noise amplifier and a filter (notshown) may co-operate to amplify and remove broadband interference fromthe signal for processing. Downconversion and digitization circuitry(not shown) will then downconvert the filtered, received signal to anintermediate or baseband frequency signal, which is then digitized intoone or more digital streams.

The baseband processor 34 processes the digitized received signal toextract the information or data bits conveyed in the received signal.This processing typically comprises demodulation, decoding, and errorcorrection operations. The baseband processor 34 is generallyimplemented in one or more digital signal processors (DSPs) andapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

For transmission, the baseband processor 34 receives digitized data,which may represent voice, data, or control information, from thecontrol system 32, which it encodes for transmission. The encoded datais output to the transmit circuitry 36, where it is used by a modulatorto modulate a carrier signal that is at a desired transmit frequency orfrequencies. A power amplifier (not shown) will amplify the modulatedcarrier signal to a level appropriate for transmission, and deliver themodulated carrier signal to the antennas 40 through a matching network(not shown). Various modulation and processing techniques available tothose skilled in the art are used for signal transmission between themobile terminal and the base station.

In OFDM modulation, the transmission band is divided into multiple,orthogonal carrier waves. Each carrier wave is modulated according tothe digital data to be transmitted. Because OFDM divides thetransmission band into multiple carriers, the bandwidth per carrierdecreases and the modulation time per carrier increases. Since themultiple carriers are transmitted in parallel, the transmission rate forthe digital data, or symbols, on any given carrier is lower than when asingle carrier is used.

OFDM modulation utilizes the performance of an Inverse Fast FourierTransform (IFFT) on the information to be transmitted. For demodulation,the performance of a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the received signalrecovers the transmitted information. In practice, the IFFT and FFT areprovided by digital signal processing carrying out an Inverse DiscreteFourier Transform (IDFT) and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT),respectively. Accordingly, the characterizing feature of OFDM modulationis that orthogonal carrier waves are generated for multiple bands withina transmission channel. The modulated signals are digital signals havinga relatively low transmission rate and capable of staying within theirrespective bands. The individual carrier waves are not modulateddirectly by the digital signals. Instead, all carrier waves aremodulated at once by IFFT processing.

In operation, OFDM is preferably used for at least down-linktransmission from the base stations 14 to the mobile terminals 16. Eachbase station 14 is equipped with “n” transmit antennas 28, and eachmobile terminal 16 is equipped with “m” receive antennas 40. Notably,the respective antennas can be used for reception and transmission usingappropriate duplexers or switches and are so labelled only for clarity.

With reference to FIG. 16, a logical OFDM transmission architecture willbe described. Initially, the base station controller 10 will send datato be transmitted to various mobile terminals 16 to the base station 14.The base station 14 may use the channel quality indicators (CQIs)associated with the mobile terminals to schedule the data fortransmission as well as select appropriate coding and modulation fortransmitting the scheduled data. The CQIs may be directly from themobile terminals 16 or determined at the base station 14 based oninformation provided by the mobile terminals 16. In either case, the CQIfor each mobile terminal 16 is a function of the degree to which thechannel amplitude (or response) varies across the OFDM frequency band.

Scheduled data 44, which is a stream of bits, is scrambled in a mannerreducing the peak-to-average power ratio associated with the data usingdata scrambling logic 46. A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for thescrambled data is determined and appended to the scrambled data usingCRC adding logic 48. Next, channel coding is performed using channelencoder logic 50 to effectively add redundancy to the data to facilitaterecovery and error correction at the mobile terminal 16. Again, thechannel coding for a particular mobile terminal 16 is based on the CQI.In some implementations, the channel encoder logic 50 uses known Turboencoding techniques. The encoded data is then processed by rate matchinglogic 52 to compensate for the data expansion associated with encoding.

Bit interleaver logic 54 systematically reorders the bits in the encodeddata to minimize the loss of consecutive data bits. The resultant databits are systematically mapped into corresponding symbols depending onthe chosen baseband modulation by mapping logic 56. Preferably,Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or Quadrature Phase Shift Key(QPSK) modulation is used. The degree of modulation is preferably chosenbased on the CQI for the particular mobile terminal. The symbols may besystematically reordered to further bolster the immunity of thetransmitted signal to periodic data loss caused by frequency selectivefading using symbol interleaver logic 58.

At this point, groups of bits have been mapped into symbols representinglocations in an amplitude and phase constellation. When spatialdiversity is desired, blocks of symbols are then processed by space-timeblock code (STC) encoder logic 60, which modifies the symbols in afashion making the transmitted signals more resistant to interferenceand more readily decoded at a mobile terminal 16. The STC encoder logic60 will process the incoming symbols and provide “n” outputscorresponding to the number of transmit antennas 28 for the base station14. The control system 20 and/or baseband processor 22 as describedabove with respect to FIG. 17 will provide a mapping control signal tocontrol STC encoding. At this point, assume the symbols for the “n”outputs are representative of the data to be transmitted and capable ofbeing recovered by the mobile terminal 16.

For the present example, assume the base station 14 has two antennas 28(n=2) and the STC encoder logic 60 provides two output streams ofsymbols. Accordingly, each of the symbol streams output by the STCencoder logic 60 is sent to a corresponding IFFT processor 62,illustrated separately for ease of understanding. Those skilled in theart will recognize that one or more processors may be used to providesuch digital signal processing, alone or in combination with otherprocessing described herein. The IFFT processors 62 will preferablyoperate on the respective symbols to provide an inverse FourierTransform. The output of the IFFT processors 62 provides symbols in thetime domain. The time domain symbols are grouped into frames, which areassociated with a prefix by prefix insertion logic 64. Each of theresultant signals is up-converted in the digital domain to anintermediate frequency and converted to an analog signal via thecorresponding digital up-conversion (DUC) and digital-to-analog (D/A)conversion circuitry 66. The resultant (analog) signals are thensimultaneously modulated at the desired RF frequency, amplified, andtransmitted via the RF circuitry 68 and antennas 28. Notably, pilotsignals known by the intended mobile terminal 16 are scattered among thesub-carriers. The mobile terminal 16, which is discussed in detailbelow, will use the pilot signals for channel estimation.

Reference is now made to FIG. 17 to illustrate reception of thetransmitted signals by a mobile terminal 16. Upon arrival of thetransmitted signals at each of the antennas 40 of the mobile terminal16, the respective signals are demodulated and amplified bycorresponding RF circuitry 70. For the sake of conciseness and clarity,only one of the two receive paths is described and illustrated indetail. Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and down-conversion circuitry72 digitizes and downconverts the analog signal for digital processing.The resultant digitized signal may be used by automatic gain controlcircuitry (AGC) 74 to control the gain of the amplifiers in the RFcircuitry 70 based on the received signal level.

Initially, the digitized signal is provided to synchronization logic 76,which includes coarse synchronization logic 78, which buffers severalOFDM symbols and calculates an auto-correlation between the twosuccessive OFDM symbols. A resultant time index corresponding to themaximum of the correlation result determines a fine synchronizationsearch window, which is used by fine synchronization logic 80 todetermine a precise framing starting position based on the headers. Theoutput of the fine synchronization logic 80 facilitates frameacquisition by frame alignment logic 84. Proper framing alignment isimportant so that subsequent FFT processing provides an accurateconversion from the time domain to the frequency domain. The finesynchronization algorithm is based on the correlation between thereceived pilot signals carried by the headers and a local copy of theknown pilot data. Once frame alignment acquisition occurs, the prefix ofthe OFDM symbol is removed with prefix removal logic 86 and resultantsamples are sent to frequency offset correction logic 88, whichcompensates for the system frequency offset caused by the unmatchedlocal oscillators in the transmitter and the receiver. Preferably, thesynchronization logic 76 includes frequency offset and clock estimationlogic 82, which is based on the headers to help estimate such effects onthe transmitted signal and provide those estimations to the correctionlogic 88 to properly process OFDM symbols.

At this point, the OFDM symbols in the time domain are ready forconversion to the frequency domain using FFT processing logic 90. Theresults are frequency domain symbols, which are sent to processing logic92. The processing logic 92 extracts the scattered pilot signal usingscattered pilot extraction logic 94, determines a channel estimate basedon the extracted pilot signal using channel estimation logic 96, andprovides channel responses for all sub-carriers using channelreconstruction logic 98. In order to determine a channel response foreach of the sub-carriers, the pilot signal is essentially multiple pilotsymbols that are scattered among the data symbols throughout the OFDMsub-carriers in a known pattern in both time and frequency. Examples ofscattering of pilot symbols among available sub-carriers over a giventime and frequency plot in an OFDM environment are found in PCT PatentApplication No. PCT/CA2005/000387 filed Mar. 15, 2005 assigned to thesame assignee of the present application. Continuing with FIG. 17, theprocessing logic compares the received pilot symbols with the pilotsymbols that are expected in certain sub-carriers at certain times todetermine a channel response for the sub-carriers in which pilot symbolswere transmitted. The results are interpolated to estimate a channelresponse for most, if not all, of the remaining sub-carriers for whichpilot symbols were not provided. The actual and interpolated channelresponses are used to estimate an overall channel response, whichincludes the channel responses for most, if not all, of the sub-carriersin the OFDM channel.

The frequency domain symbols and channel reconstruction information,which are derived from the channel responses for each receive path areprovided to an STC decoder 100, which provides STC decoding on bothreceived paths to recover the transmitted symbols. The channelreconstruction information provides equalization information to the STCdecoder 100 sufficient to remove the effects of the transmission channelwhen processing the respective frequency domain symbols

The recovered symbols are placed back in order using symbolde-interleaver logic 102, which corresponds to the symbol interleaverlogic 58 of the transmitter. The de-interleaved symbols are thendemodulated or de-mapped to a corresponding bitstream using de-mappinglogic 104. The bits are then de-interleaved using bit de-interleaverlogic 106, which corresponds to the bit interleaver logic 54 of thetransmitter architecture. The de-interleaved bits are then processed byrate de-matching logic 108 and presented to channel decoder logic 110 torecover the initially scrambled data and the CRC checksum. Accordingly,CRC logic 112 removes the CRC checksum, checks the scrambled data intraditional fashion, and provides it to the de-scrambling logic 114 forde-scrambling using the known base station de-scrambling code to recoverthe originally transmitted data 116.

In parallel to recovering the data 116, a CQI, or at least informationsufficient to create a CQI at the base station 14, is determined andtransmitted to the base station 14. As noted above, the CQI may be afunction of the carrier-to-interference ratio (CR), as well as thedegree to which the channel response varies across the varioussub-carriers in the OFDM frequency band. The channel gain for eachsub-carrier in the OFDM frequency band being used to transmitinformation is compared relative to one another to determine the degreeto which the channel gain varies across the OFDM frequency band.Although numerous techniques are available to measure the degree ofvariation, one technique is to calculate the standard deviation of thechannel gain for each sub-carrier throughout the OFDM frequency bandbeing used to transmit data.

FIGS. 1 and 14 to 17 each provide a specific example of a communicationsystem or elements of a communication system that could be used toimplement embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood thatembodiments of the invention can be implemented with communicationssystems having architectures that are different than the specificexample, but that operate in a manner consistent with the implementationof the embodiments as described herein.

Numerous modifications and variations of the present invention arepossible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practised otherwise than as specifically described herein.

1. A method comprising: in a time-frequency transmission resourcecomprising a plurality of transmission symbols, each on a plurality ofsub-carriers: creating one or more subzones of the time-frequencytransmission resource wherein each subzone comprises at least one blockof channel units comprising at least one sub-carrier used for alltransmission symbols in the subzone; scheduling at least one user in atleast one of the one or more subzones; controlling distribution oftransmission power over the one or more subzones.
 2. The method of claim1 further comprising, when more than one subzone is created: groupingtwo or more subzones together to form at least one subzone group;controlling distribution of transmission power for each subzone groupover the two or more subzones in each respective subzone group.
 3. Themethod of claim 2 further comprising one or more of: a) for a pluralityof time-frequency transmission resources: scrambling the arrangement ofsubzones in at least one of the subzone groups in at least two of theplurality of time-frequency transmission resources; and b) for aplurality of sectors in a telecommunication cell: scrambling thearrangement of subzones in at least one of the subzone groups in atleast two of the plurality sectors.
 4. (canceled)
 5. The method of claim1 further comprising, when physical sub-carriers are scrambled accordingto a given permutation mapping to produce logical subcarriers in thetime-frequency transmission resource: utilizing a different permutationmapping in at least two of the one or more subzones.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein scheduling at least one user in at least one of the oneor more subzones comprises: scheduling a user in the subzone with thelargest available time-frequency resource.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein for a plurality of time-frequency transmission resources,scheduling at least one user in at least one of the one or more subzonescomprises: assigning a portion of at least one subzone in one or more ofthe plurality of time-frequency transmission resources to a user on apersistent basis.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein assigning a portionof at least one subzone in one or more of the plurality oftime-frequency transmission resources to a user on a persistent basiscomprises: assigning the portion of the at least one subzone for a firstHARQ transmission.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein for synchronousHARQ, assigning the portion of the at least one subzone for a first HARQtransmission comprises: assigning the portion on a reoccurring basisthat is different than an interlace on which HARQ retransmissions occur.10. The method of claim 9, wherein assigning the portion on areoccurring basis that is different than an interlace on which HARQretransmissions occur comprises: assigning the portion on every Mthtransmission resource of the plurality of transmission resources whenthe interlace is every Nth transmission resource of the plurality oftransmission resources.
 11. The method of claim 7 further comprisingwhen the portion of at least one subzone that is assigned on apersistent basis is not used: releasing the portion that is assigned ona persistent basis for at least a temporary duration of time;reassigning it to a different user for a temporary duration.
 12. Themethod of claim 11 wherein releasing the portion that is assigned on apersistent basis for at least a temporary duration of time comprisesreleasing the portion based on one or more of: a timeout since a lastcommunication has occurred; an occurrence of N, N>=1, packettransmission or reception failures; or an explicit deassignment ofresources.
 13. The method of claims 11 wherein releasing the portionthat is assigned on a persistent basis for at least a temporary durationof time is a result of a message received along with the originalmessage assigning the portion of at least one subzone on a persistentbasis.
 14. The method of claim 8 further comprising: assigning HARQretransmission using at least one of unicast or group signaling.
 15. Amethod comprising: in a time-frequency transmission resource comprisingat least one subzone, each subzone comprising at least one partition,each partition having at least one resource block, each resource blockhaving a plurality of transmission symbols on a plurality ofsub-carriers, wherein one or more resource blocks are allocated to eachof at least one user in a respective partition; for each partition,signalling a group of users with a group bitmap, wherein the groupbitmap includes at least one bitfield that provides additionalinformation about the one or more resource blocks allocated to the atleast one user of the respective partition.
 16. The method of claim 15wherein signalling a group of users with a group bitmap, wherein thegroup bitmap includes at least one bitfield comprises one or more of: a)signaling a group bitmap with a permutation index bitfield; andsignaling a group bitmap with a user pairing or user sets combinationindex bitfield; and b) signalling a group of users with a group bitmapthat comprises: a first portion of the at least one bitfield thatindicates a number of bits N that are used to define furthertransmission information; and a second portion of the at least onebitfield that indicates one of a plurality of transmission informationmodes that has 2^(N) states.
 17. The method of claim 16 whereinsignalling the group bitmap with a permutation index bitfield comprises:assigning different numbers of resource blocks to respective users ofthe group of users; or signaling a bitfield that has a logical mappingto a particular number of resource blocks per user for a respectivepartition.
 18. (canceled)
 19. The method of claim 16 wherein signallinga group bitmap with a user pairing or user sets combination indexbitfield comprises: assigning users having resource block assignmentsinto sets of two or more; or signaling a bitfield that has a logicalmapping to one or more sets of two or more users.
 20. (canceled) 21.(canceled)
 22. (canceled)
 23. (canceled)
 24. The method of claim 16wherein: a) signalling a group of users with a group bitmap in which thefirst portion of the bitfield indicates that the number of bits is equalto one, comprises: indicating one of a plurality of transmissioninformation modes that has 2 states, the one of the plurality of modesbeing one of: a new packet toggle (NPT) bitfield that signals analternating bit each time transmission of a new packet is started; a newHARQ packet start indicator bitfield that signals a new packet HARQtransmission or a HARQ re-transmission; a multiple packet (MP) bitfieldthat signals that two packets are being transmitted to a mobile station;a subpacket HARQ transmission index bitfield that signals a subpacket IDfor HARQ transmissions for up to two states; a packet start frame (PSF)within a superframe that signals two starting points, one for eachpacket, per user, per frame; a packet information field states bitfieldthat signals two different packet sizes, in which the resourceallocation size stays the same; or b) indicating one of a plurality oftransmission information modes that has 4 states, the plurality of modesbeing one of: a subpacket HARQ transmission index SPID bitfield signalsa subpacket ID for HARQ transmissions for up to four states; a modifiedHARQ sub-packet identification bitfield that signals a new orsubsequently packet transmission; a new packet toggle (NPT) (multi-statetoggle) bitfield that signals a different bit each time transmission ofa new packet is started; a packet start frame (PSF) within superframethat signals up to four start points, one for each packet, per user, perframe to be signalled uniquely; a 4-packet bitfield that signals fourpackets are being transmitted to a mobile station; a 1-Bit modeselector, 1 Bit Mode bitfield that signals a first bit of the two bitsis used to select between two modes, while a second bit of the two modesindicates which of the two states the mode is in; and one or more hybridbitfields.
 25. (canceled)
 26. The method of claim 16 further comprising:for a given user, transmitting a configuration of the group bitmap tothe user in a message used to assign the user to a group of users. 27.The method of claim 15 further comprising: decoding the group bitmap bya user is at least in part performed as a function of having knowledgeof the size of the group bitmap.
 28. The method of claim 27 wherein thesize of the group bitmap is: known by the user; determinable by a user;determinable to a set of possibilities by the user.
 29. A methodcomprising: in a two dimensional transmission resource, a firstdimension being time and a second dimension being frequency: as adefault setting, allocating resources for at least one user in the twodimensional transmission resource in one of the two dimensions first andthe other dimension second.
 30. The method of claim 29 whereinallocating resources for at least one user in the two dimensionaltransmission resource in one of the two dimensions first and the otherdimension second comprises: providing an indication that allocatingresources for at least one user can be performed in a reverse order ofthe default setting.
 31. The method of claim 29, wherein the twodimensional transmission resource comprises at least one subzone withinthe time-frequency transmission resource, wherein each subzone comprisesat least at least one transmission symbol over one at least onesub-carrier, the method comprising: allocating resources for eachsubzone according to the same dimensional order of allocation; orallocating resources for at least one subzone according to the defaultsetting dimensional order of allocation and the remainder of subzonesaccording to a reverse dimensional order of allocation.
 32. The methodof claim 29 wherein allocating resources for at least one user in thetwo dimensional transmission resource comprises: allocating resourcesthat are contiguous in at least one dimension.
 33. The method of claim32 wherein allocating resources that are contiguous in at least onedimension comprises one of: allocating resources that are contiguouslogical channels; and allocating resources that are contiguous physicalchannels.
 34. The method of claim 29 wherein allocating resources for atleast one user in the two dimensional transmission resource comprises:assigning an allocated resource on a persistent basis.
 35. The method ofclaim 34, wherein after a request has been granted for assigning anallocated resource on a persistent basis; for a first packet, which mayhave triggered the request for the assigning of an allocated resource ona persistent basis: encoding the first packet with a second packet andtransmitting the two packets on the persistently assigned resource; orscheduling the first packet separately from the allocated resource thatis assigned on a persistent basis.
 36. The method of method 35 whereinencoding the first packet with a second packet and transmitting the twopackets on the persistently assigned resource further comprises at leastone of: increasing a size of the allocated resource for at least a firstoccurrence of the persistently assigned resource; and adjusting themodulation and coding scheme (MCS) and maintaining a consistent size forthe allocated resource.
 37. The method of claim 35 wherein schedulingthe first packet separately from the allocated resource that is assignedon a persistent basis further comprises: scheduling the first packet ona separate resource than that of a resource assigned on the persistentbasis, wherein the separate resource is scheduled: in a same frame asthe first occurrence of the allocated resource that is assigned on apersistent basis; or in a different frame than that of the firstoccurrence of the allocated resource that is assigned on a persistentbasis.
 38. The method of claim 35 further comprising: providing anindication of whether encoding the first packet with a second packet isperformed or scheduling the first packet separately from the allocatedresource is performed.
 39. A method comprising: in a two dimensionaltransmission resource, a first dimension being time and a seconddimension being frequency, allocating a resource of a first size to atleast one user in the two dimensional transmission resource andallocating a resource of a second size to at least one user in the twodimensional transmission resource.
 40. The method of claim 39, furthercomprising multiplexing the at least one user of a resource of the firstsize and the at least one user of a resource of the second size in atleast one of the following ways: for two groups, starting each groupfrom opposite ends of the resource space; each group is given boundariesof allocation space; each group is assigned starting (or ending) pointsfor allocation space; allocation of each group in a different subzone;and allocation of each group in a different interlace.